August 23, 2020  

The Digital Transformation of Business Models

Health organizations are racing these days to find a cure for COVID-19. And as the world awaits the release of approved and tested treatments, businesses are seeking out different solutions to survive their losses and stabilize their market position.

COVID-19 is certainly a huge threat for businesses around the world. Many business leaders are already considering a shift in business operations, and some are still incapable to adapt to the situation or move quickly to maintain their market share, or even compete with their rivals in such conditions. Technology providers and digital agencies are giving a hand to businesses in different sectors to help maneuver their strategies to cope with the market needs since everyone is nowhere but on the internet.

Internet users have grown significantly during the global crisis, let’s take a look at this

Source: Statista

Economists are estimating that even if the virus spread starts to slow down, businesses will continue to struggle for a while to overcome their losses. Yet, technology providers and digital agencies are taking the leap and jumping forward with solutions to help businesses not only survive, but also to grow on digital grounds.

The digital marketing era has started years ago, yet some people have had doubts regarding its effectiveness and competitiveness, others still questioned if it was essential to exist online. Currently, digital technologies are changing how people and businesses work together to adapt to the new world in and after a pandemic crisis. With international firms shifting their entire businesses operations digitally, comes the power of digital marketing in increasing their traffic and conversion rates during the economic downturn. SMEs in different industries are working with agencies to help them build their own e-commerce platforms and boost their online existence to assure that their ROI is not at risk during the outbreak, and later. On the other hand, users have started their online exploration journeys, whether they are shopping for essential groceries or luxurious pieces.

From a different perspective, the changes in revenues across the ecommerce platforms have elevated as
a result of people embracing their social distance to illuminate the spread of the pandemic. According
to Social Media Today people are spending 20% of their time on Apps. During the lockdown.

Here is a sneak peek of the most downloaded Apps during Q1 2020.

Source: Social Media Today

Let’s hear the words from L’Oreal CEO Jean-Paul Agon discussing how the ecommerce growth will help offset coronavirus crisis on CBNC international TV.

According to Forbes data survey, online shopping sprees’ behaviors vary based on gender. Survey data shows that women are more likely to be concerned about the effects of COVID-19 more than men. It also shows that men are more likely to have it impact their shopping behaviors. One-third of men, compared to 25% of women, reported the pandemic affecting how much they spend on products. Additionally, 36% of men, compared to 28% of women, reported it affecting how much they are spending on experiences.

How about consumer’s behavior across online shopping during the outbreak?
Let’s dive in a little bit.

Source: Common Thread Collective

Both officials and medical experts are encouraging people to stay at home, and the more they stay at home, the more their needs increase; hence not only shopping for materialistic needs were boosted but also reaching out for service businesses has increased significantly.

A noticeable reach out to digital agencies have been observed, aiming to help provide online services in a user-friendly and accessible way; not only to rescue ROI but also to contribute during the global outbreak. Digital agencies around the world have started to contribute differently in response to the global crisis; some have started their free consultations programs that will help businesses thrive and other technology providers have started working on developing different high-tech surveillance applications to track the coronavirus and help prevent the virus spread through tracking the suspected cases, such as Singapore’s app. “Trace Together”.

The spread of the pandemic did not only shift daily activities to online platforms; but also, events, conferences and seminars have switched to virtual. A wave of conferences reconfigured as digital summits that can be attended remotely from home, have made huge statements among tech shows. Conference organizers are still working on more alternative options to keep the cycle going.

“Necessity Is the Mother of Invention”

No matter where you are in the world, no matter how low and desperate you feel, no matter how leak is the global situation, it’s not the end of the chapter, and there is always a solution. Overcome your pain and fears, even if you are committed to the pain, use it and transform your business.

GET DIGITAL!

If you have a new business approach to maintain your brand position or if you’re thinking to convert
your trade into e-commerce, Click Here and reach out to us. We’ll be glad to share our expertise with
you.

August 23, 2020  

Why Companies Need to Shift their Marketing Strategies

With the ever-evolving development of new technology, businesses are shifting their marketing strategies to adapt to the market changes, in an attempt to transform how they market for their products and engage with their audience.

It is vital for your business to make sure that you are communicating with your customers the way they expect. Here are some approaches that you need to consider to leverage your online presence and reach out to your audience.

Website

Having a comprehensive, pleasing, and speedy website is the most important thing you have to do when you aim for a more effective digital presence that builds trust and converts.

Your corporate website will not only showcase your expertise, it will also help engage with your audience and generate leads for your business. It is the forefront of your business that creates an informative and entertaining experience for your clients and at the same time outlines how you can resolve pain points better than your competition.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is mandatory to help your audience find your website easier. If you’re looking forward to grow your business and online presence, then you need to increase your website visitors.

Social Media

With no doubt, social media is becoming an integral part of life online as social websites and applications proliferate. Most traditional online media include social components, such as comment fields for users. In business, social media is used to market products, promote brands, connect to current customers and foster new businesses.

From the customer’s perspective, social media makes it easy to tell a company and everyone else about their experience. You can use social media to respond very quickly to both positive and negative feedback, attend to customer problems and maintain, regain or rebuild customer confidence.

PPC Campaigns

Whether you are targeting other businesses or directly reaching out to customers, Pay Per Click Campaigns can be a great tool make your lead generation process faster by narrowing down your ads to a specific subset of demographic and target market.

Remarketing

Nowadays, companies are leveraging the power of remarketing. These campaigns are available through Google and Facebook as well as other social media platforms. Basically, they trace visitors that previously showed interest in your brand, website or business, which significantly boosts conversions.

It is never too late for your business to start using digital marketing tactics. You can reach out to us to help you take your next steps into the digital world. Not only is it going to be effective in reducing the amount of money your business spends on marketing and customer acquisition, but it is a great way to get the word out about your business and build on brand awareness.

April 7, 2020  

Social Media Trends 2020

This year, with over 4.5 billion people using the internet and around 3.8 billion active users on social media, it is fundamental for brands to keep track of what is trending to allocate their marketing strategies accordingly.

Staying updated can help fuel your strategy and make you build stronger, more
engaged audiences. Here are six social media trends you need to be aware of in
2020.

#1 Ephemeral Content

Instagram and Snapchat Stories are perfect examples of this type of content, and
now TikTok has joined the game. Ephemeral content is short, engaging, and
addictive in a way that people can spend hours scrolling through one story after
another.

Marketers have taken notice of this trend and will continue to leverage it to their
advantage. TikTok has been already incorporated into new business strategies.

#2 Social Commerce

Social commerce is considered the new retail opportunity for brands. It is getting
stronger every day, especially with the rise of pro-selling features on social media
like shoppable posts.

Brands and marketers are currently working to incorporate social commerce in their sales strategies.

#3 Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is breaking free from the realm of entertainment, with the rise of 5G opening new opportunities for marketers. AR applications are not limited to social media filters and fun posts. Brands are now using AR to provide better shopping experiences to their customers, allowing them to virtually try their products before buying.

We are expecting new creative campaigns and strategies that integrate with these technologies, to improve real-time customer experience.

#4 Micro Influencers

Influencer marketing is bigger than it has ever been and it is still expected to grow. There has been a significant shift to micro influencers rather than celebrities or macro well-known influencers in social communities, as they are considered more authentic and honest.

Marketers are now working with a whole network of small, relevant, niche
influencers as they tend to grow much higher engagement with less costs.

#5 User Generated Content

Businesses are now completely relying on user-generated content that goes in line with their social media plans. Some brands motivate their customers to create their own content and tag the brand for a chance to get featured on their page. Others encourage audience to tag their friends or submit entries to be a part of their marketing campaign.

This year, user-generated content, is expected to increasingly fill that gap. It is
considered much more authentic than branded content.

#6 Social Media Communities

Facebook Groups are a brilliant example of such social communities. They are
basically groups created to provide networking for its audience. Usually these groups include like-minded people who join to share their common interests and
experiences.

There is a remarkable decent shift for brands who are making good use of social
media communities to launch new products, seek customer feedback, and gain
valuable customer insights.

Get Digital!

Paying attention to what is trending on social media helps brands amplify their
digital strategies and marketing approaches. If you struggle to be ahead of your
game, reach out to us and we’ll take it from there.

We have a ten-year history of creating digital experiences for some of the biggest
brands. Click Here to check out our recent case studies.

March 19, 2020  

Artificial Intelligence VS. COVID-19: Is it saving the world?

“ Everything we love about civilization is a product of intelligence, so amplifying our human intelligence with artificial intelligence has the potential of helping civilization flourish like never before – as long as we manage to keep the technology beneficial. “

This is what Max Tegmark; co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, has declared about AI, mentioning how we’re continuously progressing and developing through artificial intelligence. It’s all about the simulation of human intelligence in a machine that can execute tasks from daily life routine to the most complex ones achieving a specific goal.

Over the past years, there has been continuous tests and experiments to analyze the power of AI. In 2014, concerns have been raised by Elon Musk regarding AI fearing that it can be “more dangerous than nukes” and in 2018, as recorded by the Recode Interview “we ought to have a government committee that starts off with insight, gaining insight. Spends a year or two gaining insight about AI or other technologies that are maybe dangerous, but especially AI”.

However; whether you believe AI is a great asset for humanity, or you‘ve had second thoughts regarding the regulations automating and controlling it, now has proven to be the the time for AI to save the world.

Alibaba Group’s research and innovation institute DAMO Academy has developed a new diagnostic tool based on artificial intelligence, early February, 2020. According to the Chinese giant, its algorithm is capable of detecting infections with an accuracy rate of up to 96%, all in about 20 seconds. The algorithm has been trained with data and CT scans for more than 5000 confirmed [COVID-19] corona virus cases. The system has been used in over 26 hospitals in China and has effectively helped in the diagnosis of more than 30,000 cases.

It has been declared by Alibaba Group that US$ 15 Billion will be invested in DAMO Academy Research and Development to attract world-class talent, build partnerships and open research labs in 7 cities around the world, over the next couple of years.

Meanwhile, robots have been deployed around the world to fight the [COVID-19] corona virus, sanitizing hospitals, delivering food and medication to patients while taking their temperatures. Drones have also been deployed to spray disinfectants and do thermal imaging.

Photo Credit: UVD Robots

A robot has been designed at China’s Tsinghua University that can actually help in the protection of medical workers from getting infected by COVID-19. It basically conducts temperature checks, collects mouth swabs, performs ultrasounds and even deliver medicine to patients.


According to CNN Health, the first person diagnosed in the United States was thus treated by a few healthcare professionals, but also by a robot. The robot has been equipped with a stethoscope that takes the vital signs of the patient and communicates with him on a large screen.

Artificial Intelligence is set to become a giant firewall against infectious diseases and pandemics. Not only does it assist in screening and diagnostic techniques, but it is also essential in identifying potential vaccines and treatments. “High tech in general has gotten something of a bad rap, but something like this crisis shows how AI can potentially do a world of good,” says Oren Etzioni, CEO of AI2

March 15, 2020  

The Digital World Against COVID-19

COVID-19 has been declared by the World Health Organization as a pandemic virus on the 11th of March, 2020, which is obviously a threatening fact to our lives; work, education and even our basic daily communication.

Yet, have you considered looking at the bright side? Business leaders won’t let us collapse. They are here to support, empower and to stand hand in hand against this outbreak.

Google response to the situation was phenomenal, to help the people continue essential work and deliver the needed services for educators and IT administrators preparing for potential school closures. It is offering different ways to help the students engage through distance learning, as well as providing online training sessions and resources to ease the producers.

Moreover, Microsoft has stated that their commitment to their customers during COVID-19 is non stoppable, their solution for COVID-19 is a free Teams subscription for six months. Lori Wright, General Manager of Microsoft 365 Teamwork said; “We don’t necessarily think you should be an Office 365 subscriber to experience the power of the Teams solution.” Working from home in such a situation can be really challenging, but they are willing to provide the tools, the tips and all the information to alleviate the pressure we are facing through this difficult time.

Facebook has stated that health care is their number one concern during the COVID-19 outbreak, by launching a new Business Resource Hub which aims to provide support for all businesses affected – directly or indirectly – by this situation, with tips, links and resources to help people cope. Zuckerberg said. “We’re giving the WHO as many free ads as they need for their coronavirus response along with other in-kind support. We’ll also give support and millions more in ad credits to other organizations too, and we’ll be working closely with global health experts to provide additional help if needed.”

Continuing to help the community survive, Instagram has linked the hashtag #COVID19 and #coronavirus to The World Health Organization website to provide the most recent COVID-19 (coronavirus) updates and methods of virus prevention to the users.

The growth of online apps that serve business needs has elevated significantly during this outbreak as well, for example The Medical ID has been there since 2014 but COVID-19 has boosted its purchase on Google Play store, as the app allows creating medical profiles that are accessible from your lock screen in case of emergency.

THE TIME IS NOW!

It’s time to see things differently. It’s not only about a virus that is eating us alive; it’s how you manage the crisis, how you make it inevitable and how you contribute to the society and humanity. It doesn’t matter what you do for a living. All that matters is helping the world stay alive. Take action! Contribute.

March 13, 2019  

How To Make Your Story Go Viral

Telling a story to a friend is definitely entertaining, especially if you are gossiping about the newest fashion trends or the latest soccer news, but telling a story to your audience might be a bit challenging. How would you guarantee that you’ve created the perfect alignments between your business, your prospects and your audience? You have to spontaneously merge yourself within the barriers and know how to speak their language.

There is no doubt that different storytelling techniques are capable of making a huge turn over in the future of digital marketing. However, telling your brand’s story is much more than what you’ll write on your website, your blog or even your social media channels. It’s your value, your mission, your aim to capture your audience’s attention and stand out among millions of Google’s queries. Remember you don’t want to be “a part of,” you want to be “The Part.”

Here are some guaranteed tips to master storytelling!

  • Immersive Storytelling:

Immersive storytelling is creating a content that will easily catch the audience’s attention. This can be something relatable, something they can see themselves in, or something that is trending in this field. Your story should make your audience literally live the moment. Through the usage of technology and internet to create unique experiences through Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to capture the attention of the world. Immersive storytelling is becoming one of the most interesting tools for brands to convey their message and not only get audience to interact but to make them enjoy the interaction as well.

  • Dark Social:

Some social sharing can’t be tracked by web analytics platforms. That’s where dark social plays a huge role. It’s the idea of sharing of content and associating links to content that is visible to brands, which is a small percentage of what is happening in the digital social space.

Most brands are waking up to the fact that they are missing a lot of information that can’t easily be measured on different platforms, which undermines the way in which audience interact.

So the solution to this, is the ability to track links that are shared through private conversations on different media platforms by focusing on personification.

  • Customer – Led Storytelling:

Individuals nowadays have many different platforms to share their thoughts and point of views. Moreover; our target audience interact more with the word of mouth and peers rather than the traditional advertising. Thus, we need to get the best usage of it and encourage them to tell a story about our brand. And that’s how we can boost our analytical results in ways that were never imagined to be possible and that’s through highlighting our audience’s interactions.

  • Philanthropic Storytelling:

Credibility and transparency! Who doesn’t crave those two in any content we lay our eyes on?

That’s what philanthropic storytelling aims to do. People want a good and honest story with a purpose. They want to know more about how you treat your employees and what’s behind the scenes of your work flow. Make your story worth telling, authentic and concise, not just amusing. This won’t only help you raise traffic and interactions, but will also help you understand your audience better and therefore steer your digital marketing campaigns with an effective approach.

  • Mini – Ads:

What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of the word “Advertisement?” It might be a video ad. right?

That’s because people want to feel the moment, live in the advertisement and explore themselves with the product or the service you are providing. However, you should come up with new ways to engage with your audience. We are all tight on time and sometimes we won’t spend it on watching long ads. That’s where the six seconds mini-ads come in handy. YouTube just jumped on this trend by launching its 6 seconds story challenge and the marvelous engagement cannot be unseen.

  • Data Driven Storytelling:

Can you imagine that the amount of content that is being produced either by a business owner or an individual in 2020 will reach 1.72 MB per second?

This huge amount of data can help us reshape any kind of information by creating an appealing story behind it. We have to grasp the hints of what the data is telling us and use it to get inspired and make some changes. You may also find some archived papers that you’ve never thought of reusing, but what if you recycled all the data into an info graph design with a heart touching caption, or something that will attract your audience and deliver your message smoothly? We don’t like to admit it, but as humans we are driven by emotions. It’s not actually the information that satisfies us, it’s the emotional impact behind it. In other words; the story behind it.

Stories can be medicine or poison. It’s how you tell it that makes the difference. You will either raise your traffic, grab your audience’s attention and emotionally bond with them, or the other way around. If you want to create an outstanding story that will boost your traffic, you certainly came to the right place.

Contact us through aws.tl/contactus and we will make sure that your content is going places.

December 19, 2018  

Why Ransomware Can Make You Want To Cry

In this very moment, someone is clicking a link in a spam email or activating macros in a malicious document. In a few seconds, all their data will be encrypted and they’ll just have a few days to pay hundreds of dollars to get it back. It’s Ransomware!

Take this story from the New York Times:

MY mother received the ransom note on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It popped up on her computer screen soon after she’d discovered that all of her files had been locked. “Your files are encrypted,” it announced. “To get the key to decrypt files you have to pay 500 USD.” If my mother failed to pay within a week, the price would go up to $1,000. After that, her decryption key would be destroyed and any chance of accessing the 5,726 files on her PC — all of her data — would be lost forever.

Sincerely, CryptoWall.

So, what is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a complicated malware that blocks the user’s access to their own files, and the only way to get back the files is to pay a ransom. WannaCry vulnerability in Windows OS, first discovered by the NSA, and then publicly revealed to the world by the Shadow Brokers. In the first few hours, 200,000 machines were infected. Big organizations such as Renault or the NHS were struck and crippled by the attack.

Ransomware has been a growing trend for the past two years, and this is just a culmination, a grand reveal to the wider world of just how big of a threat it is. But we’ve been writing about this for a while now.

Why they target businesses?

Because simply that’s where the money is! They know well that this infection can cause major business disruptions especially that they can affect servers too, which will increase their chances of getting paid.

This Chart by statista sums up key numbers in relation to the WannaCry cyber attack.

How did it spread?

  • Spam email campaigns that contain malicious links or attachments
  • Security exploits in vulnerable software
  • Internet traffic redirects to malicious websites
  • Legitimate websites that have malicious code injected in their web pages
  • Drive-by downloads
  • Malvertising campaigns
  • SMS messages (when targeting mobile devices)
  • Botnets
  • Self-propagation (spreading from one infected computer to another)
  • Affiliate schemes in ransomware-as-a-service (Basically, the developer behind the ransomware earns a cut of the profits each time a user pays the ransom)

Is it over yet?

Unfortunately NO! These attacks get more enhanced by the day, as cyber criminals learn from their mistakes and tweak their malicious code to be stronger, more intrusive and better suited to avoid cyber security solutions.

The WannaCry attack is a perfect example of this since it used a widespread Windows vulnerability to infect a computer with basically no user interaction.

Promise yourself to do these things:

On your PC:

  • Have a backup for important files
  • Don’t turn on The Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive/etc. application on your
  • computer by default. Sync the data and close them once done
  • Use an up to date operating system and software including security updates
  • Turn off macros in the Microsoft Office suite – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

Online Behavior:

  • Remove plugins from your browsers such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Java, and Silverlight. You can activate them only when needed
  • Adjust the browser security and privacy settings to increased protection
  • Definitely, use an ad-blocker to avoid malicious ads
  • Don’t ever open spam emails or emails from unknown senders (or download the files of course)
  • Use a reliable paid antivirus product with automatic update

May you all after reading this post be prepared anytime for a malware attack. Prevention is absolutely the best security strategy in this case.

Stay Safe!

February 26, 2016  

Top Trends in Internet Usage

The world seems to be becoming increasing digitalised with every second that passes. The stats back up that notion too – in fact over half of the world’s population are now Internet users and the figures have been growing for some time now.

This useful infographic highlights just how far we have come in terms of online This useful infographic highlights just how far we have come in terms of online activity. For example, there are now 3.2 social media users in the world. Given that there is an estimated population of under 8 billion people, that is a large percentage of people using social media. With the popularity of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat increasing all of the time, you wonder where it will stop. It is probably frightening for some people to think about how much time they spend on social media watching videos and generally being less productive than the days prior to social media!

The Internet is far from being an annoying distraction though as it has brought so many positive changes into the world. eCommerce has transformed the way that consumers buy products and services, with 80% of UK buyers using online commerce research before they buy a product online. Interestingly, eCommerce sales have rocketed by 13% over the last two years.

The next big development in commerce will be the increased usage of drones, with an estimated 600,000 to be in use by the end of 2018. Voice search is another trend that will be on the rise, currently there are over 1 billion voice searches performed each month and this figure will be even higher in the future. The popularity of Alexa and other voice command devices is growing, accounting for much of this projected increase in voice searches.