1 Digital, Technology and Business Insights www.digitalfirstmagazine.com GLOBAL EDITION AUGUST 2022 Christopher Amos & Joleen Amos, Founders, No MarketingBoundariesGroup Tyler Kutt, KreativCo-Owner,MarketingGrand Apps Joel Sellentine, Founder - CEO, KARMA jack Daniel Tonsen, CEO & Founder, Elite Advertising MUST WATCH MARKETING & ADVERTISING COMPANIES – 2022
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Digital Magazine August 20224 GET MOBILETHEISSUE August 2022 Vol - 3 Issue - 10 www.digitalfirstmagazine.com Must-Watch Marketing and Advertising Companies Special Head of Advisory Board Dr. Manoj Varghese, Ph.D Managing Editor Sarath Shyam Consultant Editors Enquiry: admin@digitalfirstmagazine.com Art and Design Charlie Jameson Sales & Marketing Enquiry: admin@digitalfirstmagazine.com Subscription www.digitalfirstmagazine.com InternationalAmericasRepresentation Connecta Global LLC 16192 Coastal Highway, Lewes, DE USA19958, Europe Connecta Global Ltd. 27, Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX, UK Middle East Focus Innovation Technologies FZE P.O. Box 48299, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, UAE Asia-Pacific Connecta Innovation Pvt. Ltd. Ramanashree Arcade, 18 MG Road, Bangalore –India560001, Digital First Magazine is a digital magazine published by Connecta Innovation Private Limited. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in the content are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Connecta Innovation Private Limited or any of its members or associates. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the advertisements and all representation of warranties made in such advertisements are those of the advertisers and not of the publisher. Digital First trademark is owned by DFG Digital First Infotech Pvt Ltd. and Connecta Innovation Pvt Ltd. has permission to use Digital First brand name. Digital First Magazine is a Free Subscription digital magazine strictly not for sale and has to be strictly for internal private use only. Publisher does not assume any responsibility arising out of anyone printing copy of this digital magazine in any format and in any country and all matters related to that. Dr. Johny
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he pandemic, like many industries, affected the spending on advertising worldwide, which was on steady growth till then. However, surviving the hiccups, the industry saw healthy growth in 2021 and is expected to continue on the path and surpass one trillion USD in 2026. As per the reports, North America is the region that invests most in advertising. Catching up with it is the Asia Pacific, which has been on its heels for quite some time. Western Europe closes the top three while the Middle East, Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe spend the least. However, they can boast the highest growth.
Enjoy Reading. Sarath Shyam
To celebrate the success of innovative organisations operating in this sector, we have come up with a special issue featuring 10 MustWatch Marketing and Advertising Companies in 2022 that offer an array of services and specialise in various industries. Many of them focus on certain types of advertising, and the most common services include researching the market, developing creative messaging, producing content and media, placing media, monitoring campaign effectiveness, and modifying and updating campaigns as needed.
According to Digital Advertising Global Market Report - 2022 published by Research And Markets, growth in the historic period resulted from the strong economic growth in emerging markets, increased internet penetration, government initiatives in developing economies, rising penetration of e-commerce, increased availability of mobile devices, rapid development in technology, an increase in social media usage and the impact of COVID-19. On the other hand, Advertising brands and companies have never failed to attract consumers’ attention. They have continuously increased their investments in advertising as it is essential for a company’s survival.
Digital First Magazine August 2022 5
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MANAGING EDITOR’SNOTE
RegainingMomentumthe
Digital First Magazine August 20226 LinkedInTrailblazersAdvertising Daniel Tonsen ELITE ADVERTISING 22 A One-Stop-Shop for Exclusive Internet Marketing Services Joel Sellentine KARMA jack 34 CONTENTS
Digital First Magazine August 2022 7 A One-Stop-Shop for Marketing & ServicesDesign Tyler Kutt KREATIV MARKETING 44 Simplifying the Marketing & Advertising Game for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses Christopher Amos & Joleen Amos NO BOUNDARIES 58 MUST-WATCH MARKETING COMPANIESADVERTISING&2022
Digital First Magazine August 20228 IN MY VIEW LEADERS’S INSIGHTSLEADER IN FOCUS Dr. Santarvis N. LeadershipBrown, and EducationeCornellStrategist, Leadership ManagementVs. 10 CONTENTS Carlos M. Meléndez, COO & WovenwareCo-Founder, Engineering AIBestowDrivenSolutionsforBusinessTransformation 14 Mel Migrino, VP and Group CISO –Meralco/ Chairman & President of Women in SecurityPhilsAlliance Defending the SupplyEcosystemChain 30 Niranjan SuperbrandsConsultantGidwani,Director,MemberUAECouncil,FormerCEO,ErosGroupDubai Online – The Future of B2C, D2C, B2B 50
Digital First Magazine August 2022 9 EXPERT’S OPINION Gary Ng, Founder & CEO, viAct Why Responsible AI is at the Core of Ensuring Safety in Construction? 38 Jithin George, Chief Product Officer, Voiro Why is ProblemReconciliationRevenueaforLargerCompanies? 54 Vineet Toshniwaal, CEO &BizzoFounder, Is QR Code the Future of IndustryTravel 64 Yash Jain, CoNimbusFounder,Post 5 Ways How AI is Changing Last-Mile Delivery Services 68
A sk any person of authority, “Are you a leader or a manager?” You will likely end up with as many different responses as you do the number of people who you’ve asked. That’s because we all look at these roles in different ways.
IN MY VIEW Leadership ManagementVs.
Regardless of the title that a company places on the hierarchal level of a person, most people understand that a managesmanagersomething Dr. Santarvis N. Brown, Leadership and Education Strategist, eCornell
Digital First Magazine August 202210
I remember talking to a colleague of mine who once told me that he’d gone from one company as a senior manager to another company as a senior
Generally speaking, a leader is anyone who has the interest of a company in mind. A manager is someone who leads a specific area or department. It even gets more confusing when companies put in place different named-hierarchy for levels of leadership. Think lead, supervisor, foreman, manager, steward, and the list go on.
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Dr. Santarvis Brown is a Scholar and Changemaker who brings 20 years of experience in the education space. He is the President of Edu-Techure LLC, an education consultancy. He has served in the K-12 and higher education spaces well. He began his career as an executive director for an educational non-profit that provided academic enrichment in low-income areas in the Overtown community. He served as a middle school classroom teacher, and principal. He also served as the First African American Director of the Seminole Tribe of Florida Department of Education. In addition to holding the rank of full professor, he has served in administration as a Department Chair, and Associate Provost/ Chief Academic Officer. He currently teaches Leadership at The University of Virginia and Cornell University.
DR. SANTARVIS N. BROWN
Digital First Magazine August 202212 supervisor. When he started at his new job, he thought he was taking a lesser position. It turns out that at his new company, they didn’t use the terminology manager. Supervisor is what his previous company would have called a manager. For some reason that company felt the term manager was more authoritarian than supervisor. Confusing, right? But this is a reality when it comes to leadership of any kind. In an effort to build support and morale, companies will often change title names in order to create a new – better – environment. It rarely works. I’d go so far as to say, it never works. Name change is not the problem with a company that has low morale. Management is the problem. And this is where we discuss the real difference between leadership and management.
The Manager
Regardless of the title that a company places on the hierarchal level of a person, most people understand that a manager manages something. That something could be a mailroom, a department, a shift, or the four cubicles in the corner of the office. Whatever it is, a manager tends to manage people and activities in a specific area. That’s fine. However, the way that we gauge success for a manager is often purely dependent upon how that manager performs over the area and people they manage. In fact, the manager could be a lousy people-person, but if the metrics are hit in that small area, the manager is considered good-great-successful. What happens if a 1st and 2nd shift production manager are doing amazing, but suddenly the third shift production manager can’t seem to hit their metrics? Does that mean the 3rd shift production manager is just not doing well? If you said yes, then you would be like most companies who would replace that 3rd shift manager. But I would argue that of all of the managers, it is likely the 2nd shift manager who is doing a poor job by Good no leader can succeed if their employees don’t succeed
understandleadersthat
How do I know it is the 3rd shift manager who is the leader among these three people?
Because it is the 3rd shift manager who is thinking about how the company will succeed as a whole. That is the difference. This 3rd shift manager may be in the same role, but sees it much more broadly. This person does not see the manager as managing a department, or shift, or four cubicles. This person sees the manager as someone who helps others succeed even if they are dealt a difficult hand. Companies around the world struggle because they perpetuate the ideals of a manager, not a leader. How Does a Manager Become a Leader?
employees will feel appreciated. Imagine, if in the example above, that 1st shift production manager publicly acknowledging that their success came from the 3rd shift team more than their own efforts.
Digital First Magazine August 2022 13 not setting the 3rd shift manager up for success.
A Good Leader Listens
Just like in the earlier example, the 3rd shift production leader showed his team how to set others up for success. Sometimes – oftentimes –that means putting aside your personal metrics to improve another team’s metrics. This is probably the easiest and most effective way to improve the whole of a company, yet receive the least recognition.
A Good Leader is Humble and Will Give Others Recognition Good leaders understand that no leader can succeed if their employees don’t succeed. By recognizing employees (and colleagues) for their suggestions, actions, and achievements
And it is the 1st shift manager who benefits from the skills of the 3rd shift manager who sets the 1st shift manager up for success.
A Good Leader Shows the Importance Supporting Everyone
As I hope I’ve demonstrated, a name does not make a leader. In fact, a name may actually diminish a leader’s role. How many times have you heard the statement, “management is horrible, but I love my leader?” It’s a popular statement and people often subconsciously separate their own leader from the rest of the company’s management. That is because a good leader shows the characteristics that employees look at as successful.
If you want someone to feel respected, just close your mouth and listen. Leaders learn to listen and guide others to success rather than ordering people around. Listening to the “boots on the ground” will lead everyone in a positive direction. But a good listener does not just hear from their own team. A good listener looks at the whole picture to identify where that leader’s team can improve the whole of the company.
On the surface, evaluating a leader from a manager seems obvious. Yet, the implementation is excessively difficult. First off, leaders need to toss their old friend “Ego” out the door. A leader has the ability to put their personal interests aside while focusing on the interests of the whole. Imagine doing everything to help everyone else and receiving nothing in return. If you can do that, then you already know what it is like to be a great leader. Congratulations.
Digital First Magazine August 202214 Engineering AI-Driven Bestow Solutions for TransformationBusiness LEADER IN FOCUS
CARLOS M. MELÉNDEZ COO & WovenwareCo-Founder, Carlos M. Meléndez is the COO and co-founder of Wovenware, a Puerto Rico-based design-driven company that delivers customized AI and other digital transformation solutions that create measurable value for government and private business customers across the U.S. and the world. Carlos leads Wovenware’s operations and establishes long lasting partner relationships with our new and existing customers. Carlos is an Electrical Engineering graduate from the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez Campus and holds a graduate degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law.
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At a very young age, I started programming my Commodore 64 as a hobby. I’ve always been interested in the underpinnings of technology and using it to solve problems Throw some light on your expertise as a software developer that you bring to the table.
With expertise in business strategy and software engineering, how would you describe the latest technology trends and innovation in the global software industry
It’s an exciting time for the global software industry, given the level of automation that is helping businesses become more efficient, as well as strategic
It’s an exciting time for the global software industry, given the level of automation that is helping businesses become more efficient, as well as strategic. The cloud has really democratised technology—everyone has access to technology, along with unprecedented computer processing capabilities. And, we’re actually only at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to its possibilities. How has artificial intelligence and software practices changed in the last decade? I think people have come to understand the practical limitations of AI and what it can and cannot do. While AI enables repetitive tasks to be automated, helping to make important
As an Electrical Engineering student in college, I was able to take computer engineering and a broad array of other courses. This diversity across a lot of subject matters is important for software developers since it’s not only about understanding code, but also about how things work, how people like to work, and how technology can be applied to solve real-world business problems.
Tell us about the formative years of your life. How did you develop an interest in technology and decide to pursue it professionally?
What are some of the most challenging aspects you face in your current role, and how do you mitigate them?
Digital First Magazine August 202216 decisions about patient health or who qualifies for a loan, it still requires humans in the loop. Humans must always be a part of the decisionmaking process. People will increasingly recognise this dynamic between humans and machines and learn to work together.
A key challenge is helping customers who come to us saying they want to deploy a chatbot, for example, take a step back and first explain their business problem. Often, companies want to start with the technology and think it’s the silver bullet to solve all of their problems, but they need to first start with a clear understanding of the problem and then carefully work toward the right solution.
Tell us about the network of professionals and partners that you have created so far. Can you shed some light on a few initiatives or techniques you are incorporating?
I work with a number of organisations on and off of Puerto Rico, such as ConPRMetidos, which works to boost economic development on the island; and the EO Network, an organisation committed to entrepreneurs across the world. I’m also a member of the Forbes Technology Council, where I’m a regular blogger. As an organization, Wovenware is extremely committed to giving back to the community and helping to educate the next generation of software and AI talent, so we’re actively involved in mentoring and training programs with the leading universities in Puerto Rico. How do you stay abreast of the periodic technological and industry changes in a world that is constantly evolving? It’s important to be a constant learner, ask questions, and challenge existing assumptions in order to continue to innovate. We place a big emphasis at Wovenware on ensuring that our software engineers, programmers, data scientists, and design experts stay up-to-date on new developments in the industry, certifications, and training. The fact that the world of technology is constantly evolving is what makes it so exciting.
As a successful business leader, what would your advice be to youngsters aspiring to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future? I would tell them to follow their passion and not be afraid to take a risk. All success comes with some level of risk. And, even though some mistakes may happen, there are always valuable lessons that can be learned.
How do you foresee software technology trends impacting the global business landscape going forward? Software will continue to impact global business. As the saying goes, every company is a software company, even if they don’t see it that way. In order to remain relevant, operate more efficiently and boost productivity regardless of economic developments, companies understand that technology is the key to reducing costs and growing businesses.
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Location:Website: Copenhagen, Denmark Keyperson: Daniel Tonsen, CEO and Founder About the Company: Elite Advertising helps B2B companies create and execute on LinkedIn with advanced data-driven B2B marketing strategies. Advertising Elite Advertising
Location:Website: Utah, USA Keyperson: Jacob Baadsgaard, Founder and CEO About the Company: Disruptive Advertising helps companies grow to the next level by developing and executing a dynamic digital marketing strategy that helps you drive the right traffic from Google and Facebook.
https://disruptiveadvertising.com/ https://www.eliteadvertising.dk/en MUST-WATCH MARKETING ADVERTISING&COMPANIES2022
Disruptive
Location:Website: California, USA Keyperson: John E. Lincoln, Co-Founder and CEO
KARMAVisibilityjack
Location:Website: Michigan, USA Keyperson: Joel Sellentine, Founder & CEO About the Company: KARMA jack is a hustle-harder digital marketing agency that helps businesses grow and get a real return on their investment.
Ignite Kreativ https://www.iprospect.com/https://werkreativ.com/
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About the Company: Ignite Visibility is one of the highest awarded digital marketing agencies in the industry, works with some of the biggest brands in the world and is a 5x Inc. 5000 company.
iProspectMarketinghttps://karmajack.com/https://ignitevisibility.com/
Location:Website: Michigan, USA Keyperson: Tyler Kutt, Co-Owner About the Company: Kreativ is a Google certified digital media agency that specializes in SEO, Google Ads, social media, and content creation.
Location:Website: Massachusetts, USA Keyperson: Amanda Morrissey, Global President About the Company: The iProspect team works across a network of more than 8,000 media and performance specialists spread across 93 global markets.
Tronvig
SinecticaMarketinghttps://noboundaries.marketing/
https://www.tronviggroup.com/
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Location:Website: New York, USA Keyperson: James Heaton, Founder About the Company: Tronvig has developed a straightforward and effective brand strategy diagnostic and a practical marketing strategy analysis that bring clarity to strategic decisions.
Location:Website: Arizona, USA Keypersons: Christopher Amos and Joleen Amos, Founders About the Company: No Boundaries Marketing Group was founded on the basis to simplify the marketing and advertising game for small to medium sized businesses.
Location:Website: Parque Lefevre, Panamá Keyperson: Gustavo Gonzalez, Director About the Company: Sinectica transforms companies through marketing technologies in order to help them grow and take data driven decisions. No Boundaries Marketing Group Group Kreativ https://www.sinectica.io/marketing-technologieshttps://www.unstoppablebrandingagency.com/
Location:Website: California, USA Keyperson: Rhonda Swan, Founder and CEO About the Company: UBA is where the elite and world class entrepreneurs come to expand their brands impact and influence through top tier PR and Media.
Digital First Magazine August 202222 ELITE ADVERTISING TrailblazersAdvertisingLinkedIn Daniel Tonsen, CEO and Founder MUST-WATCH MARKETING COMPANIESADVERTISING&2022
B2B marketers face several challenges, with the topmost being reaching the desired target and global audience, generating traffic and leads, displaying Marketing Activities ROI, and scalability. Procuring quantitative leads is not the challenge we think it is today, but obtaining quality leads is what most organisations struggle with. Most marketers’ lack of knowledge has them selecting the wrong medium and attracting the wrong prospects to fit their desired customer profile, ultimately leading to lesser conversion rates. Creating high-quality content that resonates with the targeted audience is imperative to achieving better conversion rates.
ELITE ADVERTISING, SITUATED IN DENMARK, IS PERFECTLY POISED IN THE B2B SPACE, ENSURING ABSOLUTE CUSTOMER DELIGHT BY LEVERAGING ITS COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY WITH LINKEDIN ADVERTISING
Content, right from infographics, blog posts, videos, and webinars, needs to be developed based on the specific audience and strategy.
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T
Organisations today need to rethink their business marketing approach.
he B2B marketing and advertising domain is continually evolving and becoming increasingly competitive in today’s fast-paced world.
Elite Advertising, situated in Denmark, is perfectly poised in the B2B space, ensuring absolute customer delight by leveraging its comprehensive strategy with LinkedIn Advertising.
One of the first certified LinkedIn agencies in the world, Elite Advertising’s core offering, LinkedIn Advertising, comprises comprehensive management of LinkedIn ads, content creation, and accounts management; entire B2B marketing strategy. The team of experts at Elite Advertising takes their dedication to the next level by conducting postimplementation research with the end-users concerning relevance and customer satisfaction. The company also facilitates its clients with LinkedIn Organic. The team assists fast-growing organisations with their personal or corporate pages. The company addresses the challenge of scalability that most brands encounter through its automated LinkedIn Messaging service, helping run innovative online campaigns that grow with them. “The organic part of LinkedIn is very scalable for the company’s decisionmakers. We are very well received in the advertising domain,” informs Daniel Tonsen, CEO and Founder of Elite Advertising. Additionally, the company perfectly understands the challenge of hiring skilled talent and offers recruitment services through LinkedIn. “We are very proficient at advertising, enabling us to do entire branding and recruiting. We usually work with fast-growing companies, generating a lot of leads and growth,” says Daniel. Partnering with Elite Advertising offers B2B companies a myriad of advantages. These
Digital First Magazine August 202224
Offering a Comprehensive Suite of Innovative Services
worked with a
of flourishing organisations whose business has ONE OF THE FIRST CERTIFIED LINKEDIN AGENCIES IN THE WORLD, ELITE ADVERTISING’S CORE OFFERING, LINKEDIN ADVERTISING, COMPRISES COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT OF LINKEDIN ADS, CONTENT CREATION, AND ACCOUNTS MANAGEMENT; ENTIRE B2B MARKETING STRATEGY
elucidates
Satisfaction Daniel
Assuring
quality ads can be designed to target specific decision-makers within the organisation, fasttracking the process, thus helping redirect the saved time and resources elsewhere. With the promise of superior quality service delivery, the team consistently works toward establishing the client as the preferred choice in the industry to its customers. “In marketing, it is a huge issue for several companies to see the actual value and revenue generated. We look into the CRM system to provide a holistic view of how many leads that were generated provide real revenue ultimately funnelling through the sales pipeline,” Daniel. Complete Customer and his team have gamut
Digital First Magazine August 202226 catapulted to even newer heights, having partnered with Elite Advertising. He fondly recounts having been approached by an umbrella sharing service company close to a year ago. With their limited knowledge, the founders of the company tried their hand at advertising, but to no avail. “We did all their campaigns. We advised them on how and what kind of content they should be creating. With our help, they created a lot of content, and their ads performed 20 times better than when they did it themselves. Right now, they have generated close to a million dollars in revenue,” reveals Daniel.
Another interesting success story is about an American company dealing in the sale of oil that approached Elite Advertising to improve its sales performance. Belonging to a niche domain, the oil company’s challenge was to make a ‘boring’ product interesting while targeting the limited 500 high-value clients available worldwide. The in-house team themselves struggled to make headway as each investment from its customers was close to 3 million dollars in revenue. They could not promote their ‘marketviewed unappealing’ product as a ‘must-have’ product. The team at Elite Advertising created unconventional ads and advertised the desired
Digital First Magazine August 2022 27 message to their customers. While signing on new clients can be a lengthy procedure that can take up to three years, nine targeted businesses have been in contact with the client and are currently in the sales pipeline. All this progress was possible with just a small fraction of the revenue generated. “We harnessed the power of LinkedIn Advertising and our skill set to help these companies revamp their approach and brand. For the first client, we advised them on their content and conducted their whole campaign performance marketing on LinkedIn. For the second client, we did all their content. We provided videos and graphic images along with copywriting. We also did campaign performance marketing for them. That means we are testing, analysing, using different strategies, and reporting on all the different campaigns,” reveals Daniel.
Journey of Inception Daniel’s deep passion for B2B marketing led to Elite Advertising being born. He tried his hand at both B2B and B2C marketing and decided to pursue the former. The B2B segment is massive with high-priced products and solutions, making the customer journey that much harder, thus demanding advanced strategies to be put in place. Having studied this market, Daniel proceeded to test and analyse different social channels. While other social platforms, especially Facebook, churned out a host of leads, the conversion ratio was low compared to LinkedIn, which produced fewer but quality leads. Moreover, LinkedIn targeting options are precise compared to any other advertising platform. One can even select the industry they would like to dive into. Daniel explains, “A lot of companies are still not looking at price TODAY, ELITE ADVERTISING IS A PROUD TEAM OF 10 EXPERTLY SKILLED INDIVIDUALS AND CONTINUES TO GROW. THE COMPANY STRIVES TO STAY ABREAST OF MARKET TRENDS AND PROMOTE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT BY NETWORKING WITHIN THE TEAM AND SHARING BEST PRACTICES
Digital First Magazine August 202228 per quality lead, which is the key metric we need to focus on. Their chances of success were better on LinkedIn than on other online platforms. So it made sense to us to direct all our focus on LinkedIn and become better on that platform. That is why we specialise in LinkedIn advertising. That was about two years ago. From there on, we have grown and continue to grow.”
“Use the Sales Navigator to save all the leads that are in your sales pipeline of the companies you would want to work with. You can save them as a particular target audience. Having established the organisation’s presence through quality ads, the team can then connect with their audience. By then, they would have seen your ads everywhere. They would know who you are. I think that would be a good way of startingAnotherout.” strategy Daniel recommends, especially if they have a high lifetime value for a customer, is using account-based marketing. This approach is extremely specific and can prove to be very effective if done correctly.
Daniel, an advocate of creative advertising, shares his experience with us on how he and his team helped a business within the insurance industry connect with another company they wanted to partner with. The company had already tried and failed to connect through cold calling and messaging. Coming to their aid, Elite Advertising designed and developed an image with the company logos and the benefits of working together and ensured it reached the key decision-maker. “It was a success! They actually got a meeting with them,” proclaims Daniel. Having made significant advances in this domain, Elite Advertising envisions becoming the topmost leader amongst the LinkedIn agencies worldwide and diligently working toward it every day.
Today, Elite Advertising is a proud team of 10 expertly skilled individuals and continues to grow. The company strives to stay abreast of market trends and promote employee engagement by networking within the team and sharing best practices. Daniel shares words of advice to young budding startups:
Dishing Out Much Needed Advice
Digital First Magazine August 2022 29 Want to find Investor for Startup?your
Mel Migrino, VP and Group CISO – Meralco/ Chairman & President of Women in Security Alliance Phils
Mel Migrino is the Vice President and Group CISO of MERALCO, the largest Power Distribution Conglomerate in the Philippines. She is part of the Executive Committee of the ASEAN CIO Association. She is concurrently the Chairman and President of the WomeninSecurityAlliancePhilippines(WiSAP).Shehasbeencitedas2022InfluencerbytheInternationalSecurityJournalandhasbeenrecentlycitedbyTechnologyMagazine,EnergyDigitalandCyberMagazineasaleadingCISOamongglobalcybersecurityleadersandaregularcontributorinWomeninSecurityMagazineinAustralia.Sheis the former Cyber Security Leader of a Big 4 auditing firm and the largest fintech in the Philippines. She has more than 15 years of combined experience in Cyber and IT Governance, Application and Infrastructure Security, Operational Technology (OT) Security, Business Continuity, Privacy, IT Audit, Project Management across multiple industries. She led the PCIDSS Certification for the largest payments network in the Philippines. Further, through her leadership, Meralco’s Fintech Subsidiary, Bayad won the W Media Awards for Southeast Asia under Cybersecurity Implementation on 2021.
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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS
Defending the SupplyEcosystemChain
Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors are more likely to have both the intent and capability to conduct the types of highly technical and prolonged software supply chain attack campaigns that may harm the greater majority
Digital First Magazine August 2022 31 S upply chain ecosystem is a network of people, applications and systems, governance processes, workflows and devices to enable to procurement and use of required products and services to meet certain business requirements towards achievement of overall business objectives.
In this age of digital transformation happening in enterprise and operational technology triggered by the challenges in this pandemic, paved the way to streamline operations, develop platforms that are within the reach of your customers and allow hyper personalization to adjust to the changing lifestyle, more and more integration points and collaborations from third parties emerged and are making progress to enable faster data exchange and seamless processing of online transactions.Thisprogressive change led the way to expand the attack surface. The trust that was initially founded on a few vetted processes and technologies has now expanded to business groups where we have no concrete visibility on the depth of the data protection controls and risk management processes that are ingrained in the business-as-usual activities.
● Hijacking - Software receives routine updates to address bugs and security issues. Software vendors distribute updates from centralized servers to customers as a routine part of product maintenance. Threat actors can hijack an update by infiltrating the vendor’s network and either inserting malware into the outgoing update or altering the update to grant the threat actor control over the software’s normal functionality.
Common attack techniques that threat actors used to execute software supply chain attacks are as follows:
A common yet high risk attack vector is the software supply chain platform that fits within the Technology organization. The IT supply chain is the network of principals, distributors, and resellers that participate in the sale, delivery, and production of hardware, software, and managed services. Software supply chain attacks usually require strong technical aptitude and time, so they are often difficult to execute. These attacks aim to compromise trusted relationship and brand in which threat actors infiltrate a malicious script to exploit and access an existing trusted connection that the third party has with the target organization.
● None performance of Code signingThis aims to validate the identity of the authenticity of the code/ author and the integrity of the code. Attackers undermine codesigning by self-signing certificates, breaking signing systems, or exploiting misconfigured account access controls. Threat actors are able to successfully hijack software updates by impersonating a trusted vendor and inserting malicious code into an update.
● Compromising OpenSource Code - This occurs when threat actors insert malicious code into publicly accessible code libraries, which unsuspecting developers— looking for free blocks of code to perform specific functions—then add into their own third-party code.
To prevent the occurrence of this type of attack, organizations should :-
time,aptitudestrongusuallyattacksrequiretechnicalandsotheyare often difficult to execute
Some of the less complex types of software supply chain attacks includes modifying open-source code or app store attacks. In general, advanced persistent threat (APT) actors are more likely to have both the intent and capability to conduct the types of highly technical and prolonged software supply chain attack campaigns that may harm the greater majority.
1. Implement an organization-wide program for supply chain risk management - This includes executives and managers within Software supply chain
Digital First Magazine August 202232
5. Require a regular updated of the software component inventory that states the components and other attributes of delivered software developed by the third parties.
3. Put in place a secure system development lifecycle policy and standards - Adopt the Security by Design as a software development practice especially for high value assets.
6. Proactively identify threats and vulnerabilities of software and 3rd parties thru the use of threat intelligence to enrich decision making. Identified indicators of compromise must be defined and blocked in various cyber technology platforms and should be reviewed in a periodic basis.
Digital First Magazine August 2022 33 operations and personnel across supporting roles, such as IT, business teams, procurement, legal, risk management, and security as these roles can influence risk mitigation across suppliers’ pool through due diligence and contracting activities
Organizations should be agile enough to quickly pivot as business direction evolves and resilient enough to withstand potential challenges that may emerge.
Vendors should incorporate security features in their software design plans. Customers can assist by communicating security requirements to their vendors.
2. Document and roll out a set of cybersecurity requirements for suppliers The complexity of the control requirements may vary on the nature of the project.
The end state is really to have a resilient supply chain that empowers people to make objective and wise decisions that will yield to greater efficiency and success in the procurement and production lifecycles.
4. Perform Binary Code Scanning to carefully assess the patch or update from the vendor - This could be an expensive investment, but it is all worth the effort. For this to work effectively, this cyber technology must be neatly integrated with the patch management standards and procedures of the technology and cyber teams.
Digital First Magazine August 202234 KARMA jack ® A One-Stop-Shop for Exclusive Internet Marketing Services MUST-WATCH MARKETING COMPANIESADVERTISING&2022 Joel FounderSellentine&CEO
HOME IMPROVEMENT COMPANIES, DOCTORS
Digital First Magazine August 2022 35 I n today’s connected world, companies large and small, global and local, innovative and traditional, public and private, are all leveraging the power of internet marketing to connect with their current clients and reach prospective customers. Detroit-based KARMA jack is a conversion-focused, result-oriented internet marketing company helping small businesses grow their companies quickly and profitably.
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CONSULTING, AMONG
KARMA JACK & AND OTHER ITS FROM TO TO AND EVEN SHOPS TO DINING RESTAURANTS
DIVERSE CLIENTELE RANGES
Inception Story behind KARMA jack “KARMA jack started in an almost reactionary way after leaving the big business to pursue something on my own,” shares the company’s Founder & CEO, Joel Sellentine. With humble beginnings in blog writing and experimenting on different social media platforms, KARMA jack fused the worlds of a proper process to get clients something they’ve never seen before. From a handful of people to a team of 30 experts, KARMA jack is rapidly climbing the ladder of success.Talking about KARMA jack’s progress since inception, Joel proudly reveals, “KARMA jack has tripled or quadrupled every year since we started.”
SERVICES.
DONUT
LUXURY BRANDS
Delivering 5-star Service to Clients
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Exclusive Service Offerings
KARMA jack offers SEO, Google Ads, social ads, email & text marketing, website builds, social media, and consulting, among other services. Its diverse clientele ranges from luxury brands to home improvement companies, doctors to lawyers, and even donut shops to fine dining restaurants. What Joel has observed over the years is that the best practices in one industry often work best in others too. Hence, KARMA jack applies the best learnings to all of its clients’ businesses and watches them rise to new levels. What makes KARMA jack different from Others?
At KARMA jack, Joel and his team apply a multifaceted internet marketing strategy approach and provide 5-star service, accountability, sustainable growth, and long-term solutions to their clients. This is not all. KARMA jack works with clients to give them rapid online visibility, produce more leads for their businesses, and generate“We’reROI.well aware that other agencies offer similar services, but we pride ourselves on the way we work with our clients,” states Joel. There have been times when Joel and his team have chosen to deliver 1000% customer satisfaction over new clients. This depicts their dedication towards clients and also makes them unique.
The partners of KARMA jack get an entire wing of super-expert marketers for less than the cost of a single employee. This is because Joel wanted to provide the most value for his clients, and as a result, KARMA jack’s success says it all.
Sharing his future plans for the company, CEO & Founder, Joel reveals, “Our team is expanding, as is our knowledge of a vast array of industries, and we plan on applying our successes throughout our client base to give them an arsenal of ideas their competitors haven’t harnessed.”
The Road Ahead The future looks optimistic with numerous growth opportunities for KARMA jack. The Detroit-based internet marketing company has already invested in disruptive technologies and is now leveraging AI to reduce customer service costs. Concerning global expansion, KARMA jack has recently expanded its footprint into Los Angeles. However, Joel and his team have developed a flexible digital work model that allows them to work from any corner of the world.
Since the beginning, Joel has made sure to steer people into roles where they can thrive.
As a result, KARMA jack has a team of experts specializing in various fields ranging from running social ads, SEO audits, and content creation to building unique websites that convert into sales. They are always given the freedom to think outside-of-the-box, and are further motivated to deliver their best performance.
In return, KARMA jack’s previous clients have welcomed its internet marketing services with open arms and given it a 5-star rating. They further continue to seek assistance from the company and do not hesitate to recommend it to their peers. Some of KARMA jack’s clients have appreciated the brainstorming sessions with its team, while others have liked its monthly rental service model. At the end of the day, Joel and his team have delivered top-notch customer services and helped businesses improve their ROI by generating more sales and still continue to do so.
Newly recruited employees are also given training on the best practices in marketing for maximum effectiveness.
Pearls of Wisdom for the Next-Gen Marketers Joel recommends that aspiring marketing professionals always focus on providing meaningful value to their customers. Also, budding entrepreneurs must be ready to take on newer challenges and continue their learning journey.
Fostering a Culture of Mutual Care at Workplace
Digital First Magazine August 2022 37 THE PARTNERS OF KARMA JACK GET AN ENTIRE WING OF SUPEREXPERT MARKETERS FOR LESS THAN THE COST OF A SINGLE EMPLOYEE
The CEO & Founder of KARMA jack, Joel, has personally witnessed that numerous companies only focus on generating revenues but neglect their clients and deliver poor customer service. Hence, such an attitude toward clients must be avoided at all costs. He further shares, “Instead, meaningful work will provide you with fulfillment and generate more revenue as long as you focus on doing the best for your clients.”
Why Responsible AI is at the Core of Ensuring Safety
Construction?in T
Gary Ng, Founder & CEO, viAct
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he issue of safety in construction is as old as the industry itself. Traditionally, the sector has been plagued with a huge number of fatalities taking place in the jobsites, making it even “one of the most dangerous industries”. Not only have this, even the productivity in construction also remained considerably stagnant over the past 25 years. Being conventionally a labor-intensive industry, almost all the tasks in the construction industry are carried out manually, starting from labor work to monitoring, inspection, documentation, site visits, to name a few. However, manual means have their inherent loopholes, like they are time-consuming, erroneous, inefficient, and most importantly requires huge manpower. Although there have been immense technological advancements,
EXPERT’S OPINION
Digital First Magazine August 2022 39 Gary Ng is the Founder & CEO of viAct. Previously, Gary had been the Managing Director of 3D leading EFI Optitex fashion technology and senior management of the NASDAQ business listed in Stratasys technology. He had also been awarded worldwide number one in the president club as a regional country manager at Stratasys with the highest commercial growth of Y2Y at 85% in 2015. Being a building engineer and having worked in the construction sector for years; Gary was highly bothered by extremely low levels of technological adaptation in the sector, in spite of its ever-increasing demands of safety and productivity. And thus, being a tech-geek, Gary emerged as AIpreneur and started viAct in Hong Kong.
Fortunately, in recent times, the construction industry has been seeing some amount of technological adaptation. Advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet-ofThings (IoT), construction robotics and the like are making headway into the industry. Such advanced technologies have been playing a crucial role towards enhancing safety in construction as well as making construction sites productive. How Automated AI Monitoring Can Create Safer Job Sites?
Automated Construction Monitoring through video analytics has brought about a new dawn to the industry. With AI in construction, companies are now able to uphold high degrees of safety compliances and productivity in construction jobsites. In viAct, we have been constantly striving to provide scenario-based vision intelligence solutions to the multifaceted challenges faced by the AEC industry. We have been constantly training out AI to provide extremely granular insights into the job sites by transforming vision into practical actions. Our Construction Management Software enables the construction companies to create safer job sites in the following ways.
● AI Navigation: viAct’s AI has been welltrained and tested to monitor and detect various safety non-compliances taking place in the construction jobsites. It is capable of undertaking autonomous and intelligent monitoring of various aspects of workers’ safety in construction, say, PPE Detection, Danger Zone Intrusion Detection, Confined Safe Work Safety, High-rise Work Safety Management and so on.
Digital First Magazine August 202240 yet the construction industry has been one with low technological adaptation. Such low technological adaptation and more-and-more reliance on manual methods have been one of the prime reasons behind safety risks, project fluxes and productivity issues in construction.
● Risk Anticipation & Management: Reducing risk is at the core of viAct. Autonomous construction jobsites monitoring and early detection of various safety risks like workers’ without (proper) PPE, or entering danger zones, or human-machine-object collision, and the like helps the construction firms to anticipate risks and take instant action to avoid it from taking place, thus help them manage safety risks.
● Real-time Alerts: Our AI Monitoring Solution has been equipped with an instant and automatic alert system that sends light & sound alerts in matter of seconds as soon as any safety non-compliance gets detected. Not only this, the alerts are also sent to the concerned remote stakeholders, via SMS, email or other instant messaging app. Thus, with viAct both the onsite as well as the remote stakeholders can remain updated about the happenings in their job sites. Why is it essential for AI to be Responsible? Although the use of advanced technologies like AI in construction has brought about multifaceted benefits to the industry, it has also opened doors for new challenges. In the ConTech ecosystem, huge amounts of user data are collected through vision intelligence in order to train AI for various scenarios. There have been many privacy issues reported in the past
AI and big data with data protection laws like the GDPR
In recent times, data protection and privacy concerns have been at the top of the mind of all. Governments of different countries have been bringing up stringent data protection laws and therefore it has become increasingly necessary to balance AI and big data with data protection laws like the GDPR. We at viAct highly believe that privacy of data cannot be compromised at any cost and have therefore taken several measures to ensure that our AI does not merely help the AEC industry to ensure safety in their job sites; rather it does so in a responsible manner. The following are a few steps undertaken at viAct to make our AI a Responsible AI:
● We generally mask out the human faces on the dashboard so as to ensure that the identity of the person doesn’t get revealed;
Digital First Magazine August 2022 41 regarding privacy in construction. As stated in one of our recent research papers on Responsible AI, studies indicate that the construction industry is adapting to technology but is not prepared for its other side. A study conducted by IBM revealed that 74% of the constructionrelated organizations are not prepared for cyberattacks and do not have an incident response plan in place. The study conducted by Safety Detectives revealed that the construction industry was the third most common industry to have experienced ransomware attacks in the year 2021. The 2020 Forster survey revealed that 75% of the respondents in the construction, engineering and infrastructure industries have experienced cyber-incident in the year 2019. Thus, AI practices must be in line with legal and privacy concerns.
● We encrypt the data with advanced machine learning technology; and
● We store the data in a high security cloud like AWS, thus, ensuring greater safety of clients’ data. Thus, to sum up, safety in its truest sense can be ensured only when risks from all directions - be it from job site accidents or from privacy and cyber-attack - are mitigated, and for this it is crucial for the AI to not just work, but work responsibly. Most AI-based applications are Governments of different countries have been bringing up stringent data protection laws and therefore it has become necessaryincreasinglytobalance
● We always ensure that the data that has been collected is only used for the purpose of personal safety and can only be accessed by employees who need it;
Digital First Magazine August 202242 built on the foundation of deep learning methods. In the ConTech ecosystem, large scale user data are collected through vision intelligence which is proportionally used for training the AI for various scenarios. Thus, massive data collection is a prime necessity for deep learning which accompanies inevitable privacy issues. Highly sensitive user data such as photos and videos are indefinitely with the companies which collect them and users cannot delete it or restrict its usability. Thus, vision intelligence powered AI which is popularly used in the ConTech ecosystem are potentially subject to legal and privacy matters. GDPR regulations are stringent in this sector because with the inclusion of AI in the construction sector there is a rise in risks such as privacy damage, cyber risk, risk of overreliance on technology etc. So, like a safety officer needs to be responsible along with being vigilant, time has come when AI needs to be built smartly enough to be accurate as well as responsible.
Digital First Magazine August 202244 KREATIV MARKETING A One-Stop-Shop for Marketing & Design Services MUST-WATCH MARKETING COMPANIESADVERTISING&2022 Tyler Kutt
Digital First Magazine August 2022 45 I n today’s world, companies, global and local, innovative and traditional, large and small, public and private, are all battling out for the same market. Hence, digital marketing has proved to be a key differentiator when it comes down to getting a competitive edge in the market. Kreativ Marketing is a Google certified digital media agency that specializes in SEO, Google Ads, social media, and content creation. It builds customized marketing strategies that meet each client’s uniqueKreativneeds.Marketing was formed in 2017 by its parent company Grand Apps, a mobile app development company. “As various mobile apps were being developed, we were often asked if we provided marketing. That’s when the idea of having a marketing branch came to mind, and Kreativ Marketing was born,” shares Tyler Kutt, Co-Owner, Kreativ Marketing & Grand Apps. Since then, the company has offered services to a large clientele base ranging from dumpster businesses to financial advising and everything in between. Recently, Kreativ Marketing was picked as one of the top 11 Best SEO Agencies in Grand Rapids by Expertise, owing to its expert services. Client Relationships are a Top Priority Kreativ Marketing is very relationshipfocused. Tyler and his partner are the clients’ primary point of contact for anything they
KREATIV MARKETING WAS PICKED AS ONE OF THE TOP 11 BEST SEO AGENCIES IN GRAND RAPIDS BY EXPERTISE, OWING TO ITS EXPERT SERVICES
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Tyler Kutt is a Co-Owner of Kreativ Marketing and Grand Apps. He has spent over a third of his life working in the digital marketing space. He has vast experience working with and leading marketing efforts for businesses of all sizes; startups, medium-sized companies, and multi-billion-dollar companies. Tyler has a deep understanding of digital marketing tactics and strategies. He has a unique ability to identify what tactics and strategies work best based on individual business needs and budgets. Tyler is also a proud husband of seven years to his wife Elise and a father to his son Tucker. Entrepreneurship runs in his family as his wife runs and owns a photography business called Mod Bettie.
TYLER KUTT, CO-OWNER ABOUT
GROWKREATIVPANDEMIC,COVID-19MARKETINGCOMPANIESSUCHASCONTINUEDTOWITHINCREASEDCLIENTENGAGEMENTANDASUCCESSFULPROJECTCOMPLETIONTRACKRECORD
need. Moreover, Kreativ Marketing partners get the advantage of actively participating in day-to-day operations and decision-making on their projects. “Our clients aren’t just another business we try to make money off; we are truly in it for the long haul and value quality over quantity,” remarks Tyler. As a result, Kreativ’s clients eagerly recommend the company & its services and happily share their working experiences. ProKitchen Software’s Andrew said, “This team is doing a fantastic job keeping our brand at the top of Google month over month. We have jumped from virtually invisible to #2 in our highest traffic keyword, and we continue to push for the top spot. The brand is moving up in other keywords too! Highly recommend this marketing team for your Search Engine Optimization.” Likewise, Jason from Pure Real Estate Management said, “These guys are awesome! They have taken the time to know and understand our brand and our needs, and WHILE MANY INDUSTRIES WERE HIT HARD DUE TO THE
Tyler says with pride, “When employees see their ideas come to life and not just talked about, the amount of pride and sense of ownership they have is unmatched by anything else. Showing and expressing that we appreciate the value they bring every day goes a long way with keeping their spirits high.”
Progress Made during Pandemic
Before the pandemic’s arrival on the scene, many business owners did not understand the dynamics of SEO marketing, how it works, and how its implementation can boost their sales
they’ve helped develop marketing strategies that have contributed to our success. Their staff is friendly and attentive. I highly recommend Kreativ Marketing.”
Quoting Steve Jobs on managing talent, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Kreativ Marketing’s Co-Owner has a similar philosophy. Tyler describes Kreativ as a company that doesn’t focus on titles or accolades; instead, it focuses on delivering high-quality work and maintaining long-term relationships with clients and employees. “It’s one thing to say we listen to our employees, but it’s another to actually implement the ideas they come up with, provide them the support they need, and empower them to see it through,” he continues.
While many industries were hit hard due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marketing companies such as Kreativ continued to grow with increased client engagement and a successful project completion track record. “As terrible as the pandemic has been, it did allow us to really lean into the education side of why digital marketing is so important,” opines Tyler.
Inspiring Workplace Culture
“Training allowed us to prove we really know what we’re talking about and provide affordable options that clients could choose from what they were most comfortable with,” adds Tyler.
Digital First Magazine August 2022 49 and expand reach. In a similar vein, Tyler began educating potential clients on digital marketing strategies and formed a close bond with them.
followed.Furthermore,
Andi Anders, Lead Designer Brandon Ross, Co-Owner Melissa Boverhof, Lead Developer
As a marketing expert, Tyler suggests industry amateurs focus and deliver high-quality work right from the beginning. Many business owners use unfair tactics to bring in clients but fail to keep up their end of the bargain. Hence, an honest and transparent approach must be word-of-mouth advertising is the best out there when it comes to brand building. “In addition, I would suggest starting with a local SEO strategy and never plan on pausing or stopping that strategy. Almost half of all searches consist of users seeking local information, so it’s imperative to be a part of that conversation, especially if you’re just a startup,” sums Tyler. Marching Ahead In the coming years, Tyler plans on building user connections through experiences. This is what content marketing does and why it’s so important. He continues by saying, “I think our next challenge is how can we help build an experience a business can then provide to their current or prospective client base that promotes re-engagement, retention, and referrals. Connection is the key, and it’s something we’ll be highly focused on starting now and into the foreseeable future.”
A Note for Emerging Leaders
Coming from a humble, middle-class, extremely value-based background, Niranjan Gidwani is the Consultant Director, Member UAE Superbrands Council and Former CEO of Eros Group Dubai. Mr. Gidwani is known for his vision and his ability and expertise to build regional groups and organisations into brands. He is a degree holder in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the Symbiosis Institute of Management, Pune, India. He has also attended several top management courses at institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the Seven Habits program under Dr Steven Covey and several others across the world. Mr. Gidwani has over 38 years of hard-core senior management experience with a strong exposure to handling international business.
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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS
Online – The Future of B2C, D2C, B2B Niranjan Gidwani, Consultant Director, Member UAE Superbrands Council, Former CEO, Eros Group Dubai
H ow does the future arrive?
Investment in technology, continuous and regular upgrades to technology, hiring, grooming and retaining a strategically driven team, and maintaining highest levels of customer service is an exercise which requires non-stop planning and execution
By now, almost all companies, big and small, product-based, service-based, have got on to the bandwagon of setting up a website. And then, more adventurously, setting up a commerce platform. However, it is extremely critical for business owners and senior managers to understand that a good web developer, hired or outsourced, may almost never be able to play the role of the chief strategy or technology officer of the online business model. He can be a very good starting point. Yet, in a rapidly disruptive business environment, even the best web developer may not be able to see scalable operational challenges, costs and timelines associated to effective scale up, and marketing requirements and costs.
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One thing is now very clear. No one asks whether businesses should digitize or not. The question that many would need to urgently answer is that, in this phase of FOMO (fear of missing out) how does one digitize strategically, and for reasonably long-term sustained success.
One powerfully relevant answer is - gradually, and then all of a sudden, without realizing, its upon us.
Coming to marketing, one common mistake made by content marketers is that they rely solely on campaigns, plans, and calendars. It is important to note that these will never equate to a marketing strategy. Simply producing more content can affect the quality and dilute messaging, draining overall value.
The most often repeated phrase these days is “Data is the New Oil”. Here too, almost all companies, big and small, have got into the act of collecting some form of data. In fact, the amount of data being collected globally is unbelievable. The catch lies in using the data effectively to build a successful business model. Starting right from the customer’s device, there are hundreds of identifiers available to the company to provide crucial insights about its platform and the customers who use it. It is only after key and critical touchpoints are identified that the company or organization must define its objectives of its marketing and advertising campaign along with the metrics to be used to measure its success or failure before investing in marketing. If companies deal with incorrect or skewed analytics, more often than not, budgets which are diverted from more successful businesses will get wasted, and opportunities will most likely get missed.
Over-reliance on content marketing can end up making the business model tactical, never strategic.
Brands or companies which operate both online and offline need to urgently capture data across all customer interaction points. Data which is not used effectively in predictive analysis leads to heavy costs being incurred in marketing.
A calendar of events should not be mistaken to be strategy.
These days, converting a potential buyer from preliminary interest to final purchase sometimes can take a very short period of time. Hence, investment in technology, continuous and regular upgrades to technology, hiring, grooming and retaining a strategically driven team, and maintaining highest levels of customer service is an exercise which requires non-stop planning and execution. More so, with the global roll out of 5G and Web 3.0 imminent.
A calendar of events is just a schedule— most likely based on evidence of a past event’s success or a popular trend. In addition to all the content produced, marketing sometimes makes a mistake by becoming an in-house Because of the accelerated demand for online shopping, and because the new concept caught the world’s fancy, a lot of businesses who got on to the bandwagon succeeded with the sheer momentum of the tailwinds
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According to Forrester, almost two-thirds of buyers in North America say that they ignore content if it’s not relevant to their interests, needs, industry, or role.
In the rush to create lots of frequent content, relevance often suffers, and quality can end up becoming sub-optimal. This can potentially lead to content that lacks empathy, authenticity, and personalization.
Most ecommerce businesses and brands have witnessed very good growth over the past few years. Because of the accelerated demand for online shopping, and because the new concept caught the world’s fancy, a lot of businesses who got on to the bandwagon succeeded with the sheer momentum of the tailwinds.
There are still pitfalls. A significant number of online players still fail or flounder in their first few years. Whether it is B2C, D2C, or now the fast- growing B2B, the newness of the concept has worn off. The models per se are here to stay. The trick will lie in approaching it with strategic business practices, professional teams, realistic expectations and a fair amount of grit and patience. And quality data and its predictive analysis will give the most solid foundation.
And advertising and marketing has always been the cause and consequence of all social change. It will have to, yet again, rise to the occasion to meet the newer challenges.
Digital First Magazine August 2022 53 provider for one-off requests. Content creation and distribution without a strategy is ad hoc and disorganized.
Why is ProblemReconciliationRevenueaforLargerCompanies?
Jithin George, Chief Product Officer, Voiro
ny large organization dreams of having a single source of truth for revenue at their fingertips. Trusted, visible, and error-free. Sounds easy, but then, why do most large media organizations struggle with this? Many media organizations utilize advertising to monetise their content. Broadcast advertising tends to be spot-based and is relatively easier to manage when compared to digital. Digital ad inventory can be sold in a multitude of ways – CPM, CPC, CPD. Throw in different ad servers, multiple SSPs and things quickly get out of hand. Let’s dig a little deeper. Different Revenue Models Digital ad inventory can be sold as impressions (CPM), views (CPV), clicks (CPC), installs (CPI), or actions (CPA).
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EXPERT’S OPINION
A
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Jithin George started his Voiro journey in 2014 as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer. Having started his career as a software engineer at Oracle, he later moved to the US to work with Cisco. His experience in writing production-ready code and productspassionforbuildinginnovativefromthegroundup gives Voiro its unique edge. His vision for Voiro is to build a creative product that helps revenuebysolveuniquechallengesfacedorganisationsregardingcontentmonetisationandgrowth.
For a publisher, it is no easy task to manually track ad campaigns and ensure revenue is calculated using the right metric for each campaign. Especially considering that larger media organizations probably run hundreds of campaigns simultaneously.
Different Revenue Streams Large media organizations rarely put all their eggs in one basket. They often split their inventory amongst multiple ad servers. For From a planning and execution point of view, businesses need to have a clear picture of the revenue delivered so far for the current billing cycle, and revenue booked for the current and upcoming billing cycles
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To complicate things further, not all these revenue models are supported by ad servers. For example, Google Ad Manager supports only CPM and CPC, but a sales team could well strike a deal based on views (CPV). Businesses handle this by using two separate metrics: a billable metric for their campaigns, and a goal metric for a line item. Juggling these metrics complicates revenue calculations even further, and doesn’t inspire much confidence in the veracity of revenue data.
From a planning and execution point of view, businesses need to have a clear picture of the revenue delivered so far for the current billing cycle, and revenue booked for the current and upcoming billing cycles. When campaigns stretch across billing cycles, you have to carefully consider what was already delivered in previous billing cycles and what is still pending.
Over Delivery Over-delivery happens when a campaign delivers more impressions than it is contracted to. Over-delivery is wasted inventory. While ad servers and ad operations folks generally keep a close eye on it, it does occur. An ad campaign might deliver 1.2 million impressions when the contracted deal allowed for just 1 million. The extra 200,000 impressions are lost and cannot count towards revenue.
Digital First Magazine August 2022 57 example, a business might use different ad servers for banners and videos. In addition, to get the most out of their inventory, they combine direct sales with programmatic sales. It is not uncommon for an organization to integrate with upwards of 10 programmatic partners (also known as supply-side partners, or SSPs). No matter what their setup, at the end of the day these businesses want a single revenue figure.
Campaigns Spanning Multiple Billing Cycles
Since Revenue Reconciliation works in real time, clients can see their end of month billing cycles reduce by over 95%. Revenue Reconciliation handles campaign changes, multiple currencies, upsells, campaign truncations, disputes and a host of other revenue-impacting events thereby giving businesses a single source of revenue truth. With this product, companies can also get access and export standard reports, high level revenue reports, in-depth revenue breakdown reports for exploratory analysis, content, audience, demand analysis reports and revenue ledgers that can be imported directly into the accounting systems.
For a large media business, this would typically involve downloading a delivery report from each ad server, each SSP, and any other downstream systems. Combining this data means taking into account several different revenue models and metrics, and different currencies and exchange rates. It is an expensive, time-consuming, and highly error-prone adventure.
Overrides Now, imagine that you are responsible for reconciling revenue for your business at the end of the month. You have painstakingly downloaded reports from each revenue channel, used the correct revenue model, handled different currencies while applying up-to-date exchange rates, capped over delivery while double and triple checking all your work. And then an advertiser or agency disputes your delivery numbers because their third-party tracking says different! This is a common occurrence and is usually handled by the two parties agreeing upon a revenue figure that overrides your own. You might also be in a situation where you offer an advertiser bonus impressions for an ad campaign which should not count towards revenue, again requiring an override.
Digital First Magazine August 202258 NO BOUNDARIES Simplifying the Marketing & Advertising Game for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses MUST-WATCH MARKETING COMPANIESADVERTISING&INTHEUS2022
O ver the last decade, the marketing and advertising industry has observed unprecedented growth. To add more fuel to the fire, digitization has changed the marketing channels forever. Today, businesses have to design products & offerings, identify key competitors, map their strengths, relevant characteristics, and outreach strategy while keeping their socially conscious customers in mind. On a very positive note, this has created a level playing field where businesses, large or small, brands heard or not, can hit their target audience, understand customer behavior, build a sales spike, and make themselves as success stories like never before.
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NO BOUNDARIES PROVIDES A WIDE ARRAY OF STRATEGIC, ONLINE, AND TRADITIONAL MARKETING SERVICES. THEY GO THE EXTRA MILE TO ENSURE THAT CLIENTS ARE PROVIDED WITH THE RIGHT SET OF SERVICES TO FIT THEIR NEEDS AS A BUSINESS
Based in Surprise, Arizona, No Boundaries is one such leading company that provides marketing & advertising solutions for small & medium-sized businesses. Founders Christopher Amos and Joleen Amos explain, “We pride ourselves in creating a custom unique marketing strategy for each client, learning each business as if it were our own! And hence, our mission is to help our customers achieve success with our professional guidance, tools, and resources!” To do so, their team spends an exorbitant amount of time educating themselves each month through various webinars and other training events to ensure they are constantly doing the right thing for their clients.
As a results-oriented, high-energy veteran in the marketing and advertising industry, Chris has worked with hundreds of businesses, developing unique and innovative strategies to help them achieve their goals. With a successful record of accomplishments with local, regional, and national companies, he has been recognized for identifying areas of opportunity, exceeding performance metrics, and managing complex marketing strategies.
CHRISTOPHER AMOS, OWNER AND CHIEF STRATEGIST ABOUT
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NO
Chris adds, “We publish weekly and monthly reports showing clients how their program is progressing and what tasks our project management team has completed, so they know where each marketing dollar is being spent!” Chris, along with his team, prides themselves in communication. They conduct regular meetings and outcome-oriented discussions to analyze the client’s business marketing and advertising strategies.
VISUALS,OFFERSBOUNDARIESASIMPLE,STEP-BY-STEPPROGRAMTOSTART-UPCOMPANIESATLOWERCOSTS.THISINCLUDESAFEWBRANDINGEXERCISESTODEVELOPTHECOMPANY’SKEYCOLORS,ANDMESSAGINGSYSTEM
Offering a Boutique of Solutions No Boundaries provides a wide array of strategic, online, and traditional marketing services. They go the extra mile to ensure that clients are provided with the right set of services to fit their needs as a business. To make this happen, high-powered 3rd party analytical tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, social media platforms, and third-party listings are consolidated into a simple, easy to read, realtime dashboard.
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For the team of No Boundaries, providing exceptional customer service is the backbone of their success. Hence, its CRM team is incredibly dedicated to catering to the clients’ needs while also ensuring that their requirements are fulfilled and exceed expectations. The success metrics of this team’s CSM role are therefore centered on Net Promoter Scores, customer interactions, and results.
To achieve this, the CRM team is required to complete two touchpoints to maintain relationships with the existing clients and target new customers every month. This depicts how much No Boundaries has a vested interest in its clients’ success and in its staff.
Delivering Exceptional Customer Service
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Sound Advice for the New Industry Beginners Understanding the ins and outs of the marketing industry for over a decade and also of running a successful small business, the team at No
Hence, during the COVID-19 pandemic, where many organizations suffered considerable losses in the US economy, No Boundaries grew over 200% through referrals from existing clients. This shows how the company has built customer loyalty and their brand name in the market which has led to higher client retention rates through their value-added services.
Understanding the gravity and significance of customer service, Chris reveals, “We incentivize our staff to go above and beyond! When they get kudos from a client or a review, they get a bonus! That is our way to encourage our staff to constantly lookout for the best interests of our clients.”
Boundaries suggests new beginners to conduct thorough market research to better understand their industry, key differentiators, identify the target audience, and master their products & services. And so, Chris adds, “We encourage startups to talk to several people, including multiple marketing agencies, to get their perspectives on how they would bring their product or service to market. One should be open to learn from and connect with other similar businesses.” From there, they can move forward with structure andNoconfidence.Boundaries offers a simple, step-bystep program to start-up companies at lower costs. This includes a few branding exercises to develop the company’s key visuals, colors, and messaging system. Then, later are the web design, and content marketing strategies followed lastly and most importantly by the business’s overall goals.
Eyeing the Global Market for Expansion New Year brings new aspirations and opportunities. Identifying the new scope of business in the global market, Chris and his team plan to test international waters and take No Boundaries services to Mexico and South America. Since numerous companies struggle to bring their products to the market, the team will be aiming to bridge this gap in the coming years. Furthermore, to make things smooth and hasslefree, they will be employing a bilingual and well-trained staff who will deliver exceptional services to the clients. This is not all. Chris reveals his ultimate plan for No Boundaries. He says, “As we grow in the coming years, we aim to expand our product offerings and deepen our client relationships. We want to be the marketing department for our clients, not just provide a few key services.” And indeed, we wish all the success to Chris and No Boundaries in their future endeavors.
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Is QR Code the Future of IndustryTravel T
EXPERT’S OPINION
Vineet Toshniwaal, CEO & Founder, Bizzo
In fact, reports suggest that at least one billion smartphone users will have access to this technology by the end of 2022. Isn’t that something to behold? Especially since QR code technology was used for more limited purposes earlier on, and now can be seen in play for daily transactions as well.
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he Covid-19 Pandemic brought to the forefront remarkably quick the widespread adoption of QR technology, helping out businesses that needed a way to communicate in a touchless world.
Despite the pandemic bringing on a wave of QR code transaction trends, all aspects and industries of
Entrepreneur, business leader, and an investment banking and IT expert, Vineet Toshniwaal is backed by over 25 years of experience across the finance and tech sectors. Currently, he is the founder and CEO of his newly minted startup BizzO – a B2B enterprise that focuses on
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digitally.tohelpingSMBserviceprovidersbuild,scale,organiseandempowertheirbusinessPriortofounding Bizzo, Viineit held a series of leadership positions across Asia. He was the Managing Director of Equirus Capital, where he actively led buyout deals across sectors such as payments, technology and aerospace. In 2008, he also founded Private Equity Gateway where he was at the helm of closing major transactions in the PE and M&A space. Furthermore, he was the Business Head for Greater China at Infosys where he was responsible for building business for the IT giant in Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai. His profile also boasts of stints at large banks such as Citibank and Bank of America.
the world suffered deeply due to safety regulations and a sharp decline in demand with an excess in supply. The travel, tourism, and hospitality industry took the biggest hit in terms of Covid-19.. That is, of course, not to say that revival has not been in full swing. The three interconnected industries are thriving as of now, and the QR code has a huge role to play in the same. How are QR waystransformingcodestraditionalofdoingbusiness When was the last time you physically purchased travel tickets or even a booking at a hotel? With touchless or contactless transactions, the travel and hospitality businesses are able to offer online tourist passes, QR code menus (in hotels, airports, restaurants, etc.), contact tracing (for their benefit), hotel checkins, portals for travel-related information, image QR code landmarks, and more.
Travellers or hotel guests now need not worry about paper tickets or availability of cash since they have more at their disposal with QR codes. Moreover, QR codes are efficient in recording up-todate health and travel data of the QR codes are efficient in recording up-todate health and travel data of the travellers or tourists using their services, ensuring safe stay and travel
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● Going to a new place or country can often render tourists confused and panicked. However, QR codes now offer unique facilities – language guidance for city tours, maps, and historic tours along with sharing addresses and locations. This way service providers or employees can focus more on human interaction for other purposes.
● On an administrative level, QR code technology can help maintain logistics more efficiently by recording significant data automatically. This is an important exercise since travel agencies, hotels, and more need to analyse this data in order to identify what works for them and doesn’t, and gives them the opportunity to grow and change.
Below are some pointers that can prove how QR codes are taking the travel and hospitality industry forward:
Digital First Magazine August 2022 67 travellers or tourists using their services, ensuring safe stay and travel. While these are the benefits travellers can avail of, QR codes also gravely help service staff or providers by sharing their load through self-help tasks such as check-ins, tickets, hotel check-ins, portals for travel-related information, and more. Thus, they are free to pursue more important matters that need their attention.
● Then come the more obvious benefits like touch and go, QR codes in elevators, and transactions through payment portals (GooglePay, Paytm, and more). So wherever you may go and whatever linguistic challenges you may face in a strange country or city, you can make touchless and easy transactions without much of a hassle.
● In effect of busy days and a lack of accessible feedback pages, many times customer feedback cannot be recorded successfully. Fortunately, QR codes make feedback collection smooth as butter, encouraging customers to voice their opinions.
All in all, QR code technology has the ability to completely transform customer experience and retention. It is a foolproof new addition to the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry. Perhaps why it has been on such a steady rise in the past few years. It also plays a huge role in helping individuals brush up on their tech knowledge when travelling, while offering an expanse of travel-related quips and more. The chronological chain of explore, decide, book, pay, experience, review, and recommend, will slowly change and better itself with the QR code technology. It will prove to be a great tool to modernise travel and hospitality leading to faster consumption of services and more substantial returns.
● Aren’t we all fascinated with the virtual possibilities technology brings us? Virtual travel, for example, through the help of augmented reality is one fruit you must taste. And how is it even a possibility – QR codes. So even if you can’t afford to actually take a trip abroad, you can still have a few hours of a break online.
● Lastly, at least this technology is assisting in the goal to save paper since it is ecofriendly, and eliminates the need for printed tickets, boarding passes, etc., contributing to a larger cause.
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ver since the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions have snuck into every business across sectors. Amid the chaos, the development of new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence came as a blessing in disguise and altered our lives and working conditions.
Owing to this fact, every business across sectors has adapted the online route to support their customers’ delivery. In this scenario, the logistics industry has become one of the major beneficiaries, especially in last-mile delivery, or the final stage of the delivery process.
EXPERT’S OPINION
Yash Jain, Co- Founder, Nimbus Post
The movement of goods from the point of transportation to the delivery location is referred to as last-mile delivery. It is also regarded as the most significant aspect of logistics because it has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. According to an IBEF report, the Indian last mile delivery
5 Ways How AI is Changing LastMileServicesDelivery
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Yash Jain founded NimbusPost, the thirdlargest tech-enabled logistics platform in 2018. One of the young entrepreneurs in the country, his passion at age 25 is building products that can simplify businesses. With expertise in Marketing, Tech, and Automation, he is the driving force behind all theTech and Business operations at NimbusPost. By creating this advanced shipping platform, Yash empowered SMEs and large enterprises to streamline their end-to-end logistics operations at the most economical prices.
Digital First Magazine August 202270 market is expected to reach $6–7 billion by 2024. Along with this, they play an essential role in the overall logistics ecosystem, accounting for up to 50% of total shipment delivery costs.
Thanks to cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence, allocation regulations have become a critical part of every logistic business. Making strategic decisions about microwarehousing, establishing dark stores, sorting facilities, manpower, rider tie-ups based on pin codes, demand and supply, as well as other issues is no longer a time-consuming process. Hence, with the aid of technology and artificial intelligence,
Allocation Regulation
With the help of cutting-edge technology, automation, and analytics, the pandemic has driven the logistics sector to new heights and vistas by enabling seamless deliveries. With that in mind, here are five ways AI is transforming last-mile delivery services globally.
Ways AI Transforming Last Mile Delivery
SaaS Platform Enhancement
SaaS technology is rapidly evolving due to advancements. Intelligent and flexible SaaS platforms achieve end-to-end visibility, essential for last-mile deliveries, and flawless coordination between multipoint pickup and delivery locations. Thanks to technological advancements like AI, blockchain, and big data, this is now possible.
Final Takeaway!
Cost-effectiveness and increased skillfulness
Digital First Magazine August 2022 71 last-mile delivery and end-to-end visibility is maintaining the supply chain robust and adaptable.
Inventory with Real-Time Insights
At its most basic, AI reduces the need for human intervention while also speeding up a variety of processes. Of course, increased efficiency allows a company to be more productive, lowering the cost of completing a task. Nowadays, customers demand cheaper, faster-shipping options, so businesses must find ways to cut costs in order to take less of a hit. By implementing AI and automating various processes, a business can empower fewer people while lowering costs. Companies have been able to reduce their shipping and logistics costs by using AI’s predictive capabilities and employing fewer people. They use these capabilities to determine how they can improve the efficiency of their processes and effectively do everything most cost-effectively.
Automation in the Environment
Aside from warehousing automation, some logistics partners have begun limited-area drone deliveries to improve last-mile delivery.
Businesses across industries are incorporating automation into back-end processes such as sorting and picking, and the FDAis moving toward automation. The procedure may eventually help with quick last-mile deliveries, endangering human lives. Automation aids businesses in overcoming problems by eliminating mistakes made by people, pointless delays, and risks to human life, ultimately speeding up the process.
Suppliers can forecast the demand and supply curve and provide inventory with up-to-theminute information on orders placed and canceled. The technology in place makes the last mile run more efficiently. The logistics team now has access to information about orders placed and revoked from the point at which an order is picked up from the seller until the last-mile delivery to the customer. All thanks to established technologically enabled software that also helps with cost optimization.
With the advancements, AI has helped businesses in a variety of ways, and it will only improve as time passes and companies become more aware of its capabilities. The possibilities are endless, the logistics industry will undoubtedly look very different in the coming years. In a nutshell, artificial intelligence and other tech solutions have brought efficiency, advancement, and convenience to the logistics sector, allowing unprecedented growth, especially with last-mile delivery. Intelligent and flexible SaaS platforms achieve end-to-end visibility, essential for lastmile deliveries, and flawless coordination between multipoint pickup and delivery locations
