The IT and Marketing trends we’re crushing on right now

This day brings a great divide amongst us, consisting of Valentine’s fanatics and those who choose to celebrate the likes of ‘Anti-Valentine’s Day’, but we’re here to set the record straight and discuss the good-looking trends that have caught our eye recently, from each member of the Asgard team.

Geoff loves: Podcasting – sounds like a good idea!

Having recently got a dog (a very active Rhodesian Ridgeback) that needs to be walked a lot and spending a good amount of time in the car on the road, I have taken to listening to podcasts.  While most of what I listen to has been sport or news related, it has focused my attention on the value of this in a B2B marketing arena.

I recently read a great article from Hubspot on the role of audio in your marketing which has some creative suggestions for the part it can play.  Naturally, podcasting is emerging as the cornerstone for marketeers looking to integrate audio into their campaigns and activities.  In fact, the rise in podcast listenership in the UK is booming – just take a look at this recent article from Ofcom which suggests that 6 million people listen to something every week!  Interestingly, half of podcast listeners are under 35, and with generation X and Y increasingly becoming the influencers and buyers which tech companies need to target, podcasting could be an attractive channel to reach them.

Looking around to see who in the tech channel (if anyone) is doing anything with audio or podcasts, it was good to see some early adoption beyond the vendors (HPE for example, has some interesting content).  Softcat has launched its own podcast series, now in its second season as have ComputerWorld and hopefully others will start to follow suit.

It’s certainly something Asgard will be looking more closely at for our customers and I’m excited to see something I have come to really love potentially featuring in the marketing we undertake in the future.

Boston loves: We ❤️ those who make us laugh

Dealing with technical, dare I say it even dry subjects can sometimes lead to marketing that reflects the same and can dilute personality.  I laughed a lot when I saw a recent video go viral for a recruitment company, which played on the tight spot Theresa May finds herself in as a result of the Brexit negotiations.  If you’ve not seen the video, watch it here, it’s fab and most importantly, it will be something that many of us will have felt like doing, or actually done at some point in our life, and that’s the point – we can relate to it!  Through some other work we’ve recently been doing we came across a company Mimecast has acquired who deliver security training.  They have used some really clever video content to get across the serious business of educating users on how not to fall foul of the endless security threats they are vulnerable to.  The videos are hilarious and make you want to keep watching.  Both examples offer brilliant insight into how using humour can make what you have to say relatable, fun and simple.  Of course, there’s limits and it’s important you understand your audience and use humour responsibly, but, get it right and you have a powerful tool to make connections, create engaging content and win the hearts as well as the minds of the people you’re targeting.

Beth loves: Integrated Systems Europe

I had the pleasure of attending the world’s largest AV systems integration show, Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) in Amsterdam earlier this month, and it was a truly mind-blowing experience. The trip was the culmination of six months’ worth of preparation leading up to the show, where one of our customers was exhibiting in the Audio and Live Events Technology Hall. From start to finish, ISE 2019 was an intensely marketing-driven activity, and required us to oversee and contribute to several projects that included collaborating on stand designs and graphics, email marketing, press release content, video storyboarding, real-time social media coverage, and much more. It was by far the largest-scale event I myself have been involved with during my time at Asgard, and being able to be present at the show itself to see the final result in the flesh was the icing on the multi-layered cake! 81,286 people attended ISE this year, which is unsurprising considering how many exciting and incredible new innovations from world-leading organisations were present. Some of the most impressive and awe-inspiring stands were courtesy of the biggest names in the AV industry, from Sony to Samsung to LG – but we, of course, loved our customer’s stand the most! I had a fantastic time at ISE 2019, and now can’t wait for next year!

Ash loves: The many times I’ve taken to Twitter over the last 10 years

Since first creating my original account just shy of a decade ago, I’ve always been an avid Twitter user. I’m part of a generation which has grown up with social media as part of the backdrop to our daily lives, kick-started with the sharing of love through Bebo, before being caught up in the Facebook frenzy.

Whilst managing multiple personal accounts across the various platforms, I’ve always loved the unique user experience that Twitter provides. An instant, instinctive format that easily engages those involved in conversation and debate. Check out my personal account and you’ll often find me in the middle of a football-fuelled rant, but despite occasional frustration, my feed has been the source of many great laughs as the latest trends emerge, whilst also teaching me a thing or two. I don’t wish to know how much time I’ve passed over the years scrolling through my timeline, but I always love the different opinions and views I see, amazed at the incredible reach that can be generated through simple interactions. Every day I seem to come across a particularly interesting insight or news of the latest incredible technological advancement, and I’d encourage everyone who isn’t already an active user to embrace it.

During my time at Asgard, I’ve become increasingly aware of the power of Twitter as a marketing tool, and despite its status as a long-established network, the platform continues to evolve, and an array of additional features have really caught our eye. In recent months we’ve experimented ourselves with fun Christmas competitions and conducted simple market research through polls, and I’m really excited to see how we can continue to expand our usage for the benefit of our clients.

Alix loves – The language of our time

In the age of digitisation, we find social media at the very core of people’s lives and an increasingly significant part of how we communicate as a business. During my studies at university, I became fascinated with the discourse of this new transformational era, particularly the use of imagery to denote multiple meanings – aka memes. Although most people may be rolling their eyes right now and scoffing at such humorous and seemingly childish content, wondering how this is relevant to B2B marketing, the language of memes is actually quite fascinating.

Meme culture, as it’s known, requires an acute lexical understanding of how these images portray meanings, or perhaps multi-layered contextual meanings. The word ‘meme’ was first coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, quite sometime before the memes we know and love today. But his explanation of the term as a form of mimicking or replication, foreshadows the meaning as we know it today, virality.

So, how can you harness this culture in business? Memes are a great way of explaining what you can’t put into words and by utilising them in trending discussions, you can draw in a lot of traffic and attention to your brand as well as showcasing your humorous side. Don’t, however, overload your feed with memes as you’ll probably draw the wrong kind of audience and try to keep things relevant by keeping an eye out for current news and trending hashtags but remember – no one likes a stale meme.

What’s my favourite meme? Well, Tobey Macguire in Spiderman 3 has my heart on this one:

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