1. You might stereotype Gen Z as sort of colourful, rule defying teens. But they’re not. The oldest in the cohort are now 26, and it’s a vital part of any brand’s strategy to connect with them in a meaningful way. This is a generation that grew up through a torrent of sobering world events from the Great Recession, through Trump’s presidency to the climate crisis, and is now entering adulthood in the shadow of the pandemic, trying to build financial independence and stability among rising inflation and the brink of recession. 2. This overwhelming sense of doom has bred a culture of hyper empat ..read more

Over half of European marketing leaders uncertain about future, amid shrinking budgets, pressurised campaign efficiency, and AI impact Marketers look to real time market insights, brand-building and alternative marketing solutions as leading hopes to remain relevant  More than half (51%) of marketing decision-makers across key European markets agree that the future of marketing seems uncertain, given the economic environment. This viewpoint comes amid a range of uncertainties impacting their working lives, with 84% reporting that the current economic situation has impacted their marketing ..read more

In today’s digital age, establishing a strong online presence and connecting with customers through purpose-driven content are essential components of building a successful brand. As a digital marketer, you’re probably familiar with the numerous advantages of content marketing, but convincing executives to support your content strategy can be a significant hurdle, particularly in larger organisations. Whether you’re well-versed in content marketing or just starting out, you’re likely seeking to build a persuasive business case for implementing a content marketing strategy for your brand. When ..read more

Keywords are a crucial element of any successful SEO strategy. A well-implemented keyword strategy can help your website rank highly in search engine results, leading to high-quality, relevant traffic to your site. There are two types of keywords: short-tail and long-tail. Whilst each can be used separately, or in conjunction with the other, they serve different user intents and yield different results. Short-tail keywords have higher search volume, are more generic and competitive, and generally yield lower conversion rates. Whereas, long-tail keywords tend to have lower search volu ..read more

In this article, I’ll be looking at the role design plays in creating digital experiences that have a positive impact on both customer and business. For many, creating something ‘innovative’ is the holy grail in terms of achieving success in business. If I create something new, it will give me an edge over my competitors. This is true, but only sometimes. There are many examples where new and ingenious ideas have failed to find an audience: the Sinclair C5 and the Segway are two famous instances of novel engineering solutions that, in the end, didn’t do enough to appeal to potential buyers. Te ..read more

Google Optimize has been a great tool for digital marketers and those investing in conversion rate optimization (CRO). The native integration with Google Analytics provided access to behavioural insights making it easier to target segments you’ve discovered using Google Analytics. With Google’s recent announcement that it will be sunsetting Optimize on September 30, 2023, companies are having to search for alternatives to keep their experimentation programs running. It’s important to note that whilst Optimize will definitely be sunset in September this year, Google have alluded to integrations ..read more

As the saying goes, “60% of the time, it works every time”. And while it is most likely ill advised to take anything Anchorman’s Brian Fantana says with more than a pinch of salt, but he perhaps was onto something with this one.   Harvard Business Review shared that at Booking.com, a meer 10% of experiments generate positive results. Let’s flip that – 90% of experiments fail at Booking.com. But does that mean those experiments were unsuccessful? Uninformative? A waste of time? As continuous optimisation continues to be an area our clients at Candyspace are investing more time and resource ..read more

WhatsApp is now the world’s most popular messaging app. It can boast over two billion users in over 180 countries, and unlike many of its rivals, that number is still growing. Until recently, almost all WhatsApp messages were between individuals and of a personal nature. In recent years, companies have started to realise the potential of WhatsApp, and the platform’s owner, Meta, which also owns Facebook, has responded by making the systems available to businesses. Companies love WhatsApp because of its informal conversation style that seems to connect in a way other messaging systems can’t rep ..read more

In the first of our series of pieces looking at the top digital trends of 2023, Lead Web Developer, Craig Wheatley, discusses what the current state of owning our own data is and how Web3 is revolutionising how it can be used for your benefit. The year is 2023 and with laws like the GDPR and the CCPA, you can be 100% certain that you own all your own data, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. While we can be confident in knowing what PII we share with websites, there is so much more “anonymous” data that is collected and stored that most of us aren’t even aware of. The term “anonymous ..read more

This is the first article in a short series discussing a collection of UI components that may be perceived as trivial, but they happen to be very significant. In my experience and when working with other designers, the footer always seems to be the last component to be designed. So much UX and UI time is spent on the header, search and navigation along with other high priority content, that the footer can get overlooked. It’s important to get the footer correct. This comment from NN Group, nicely summarises my thinking: ‘Footers can be found at the bottom of almost every web page, and oft ..read more