Zone

Start your weekend right with the Friday Five – a collection of our favourite tech and digital stories from the past week... https://bit.ly/2Njfaif

Friday Five: fake faces and sonic logos – Zone – Medium Zone’s Matt Blackwell handpicks and shares the five best stories on new digital trends, experiences and technologies…

Hot air or worth the hype? These are the influencer marketing stats you need to read... https://bit.ly/2X7cx7y

Exerting your influence: Benchmarking influencer marketing | WARC Details the opportunities and threats of influencer marketing for brands by providing key benchmarks to consider.

From a solid grasp of customer context to the need for a clear data strategy, there is more to personalisation than you might initially suspect... https://bit.ly/2th1YB6

Three things marketers must understand before they personalise – Econsultancy Lynette Saunders looks at three key themes from Econsultancy's 'Harnessing the Power of Personalisation' Best Practice Guide.

Facebook has revealed it is considering merging the chat functions of Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. But is it a good idea? https://bit.ly/2DCjLJa

The Pitfalls of Facebook Merging Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp Chats Facebook's effort to combine its major chat platforms could create minefields for users who rely on end-to-end encryption.

How are your chatbot design skills? Find out what Zone's head of .NET development, Andy Butland, thought about the latest version of Microsoft's Bot Framework here... https://bit.ly/2WaqssS

Consumers are used to convenience. Providing anything other than a frictionless ecommerce experience is no longer an option for brands... https://bit.ly/2Df9nXB

Ben Davis: Convenient ecommerce is non-negotiable for retailers There was a clear divide in the success of retailers this Christmas as those that offer cheap convenience win out over some of the nation's 'favourite' stores.

From Siri to smart speakers, studies show that voice search was on the decline in 2018. What does 2019 hold for the medium?

Voice search was less used and less trusted in 2018 than in 2017, study finds – Econsultancy A survey of more than 2,000 U.S. mobile users, carried out in both 2017 and 2018 by HigherVisibility, has unearthed a surprising trend: usage of voice search, and trust in its accuracy, are both declining. What could be the cause of this, and what does it mean for the state of voice going in to 2019...

From paid advertising in smart speakers to the emergence of sleep tech, here's what could be shaping the coming year in terms of marketing...

4 consumer tech trends marketers should pay attention to at CES and beyond Over the past couple of decades, technology has evolved exponentially, both in capabilities and the speed at which new products are brought to market. From smart speakers and voice assistants to smartphones with facial recognition, these emerging technologies are becoming more and more common.

The Friday Five is back! Make sure you catch up on the digital stories that are already making waves in 2019...

Friday Five: seeing through sound and cheating AIs – Zone – Medium Zone’s Letty Key handpicks and shares the five best stories on new digital trends, experiences and technologies…

Social Purpose is set for a year in the spotlight as consumers continue to put the ethics of the companies they use under the microscope.

In 2019 businesses must drive social change: consumers demand it From Unilever and Lego to Sainsbury's and Rihanna, there are countless examples of businesses using creative thinking to shape the world for the better.

We're thrilled to announce that our work for Wellcome Trust has been nominated for Best Video Campaign at The Drum's Social Purpose Awards! https://bit.ly/2zft6nG

Wellcome Trust To help the Wellcome Trust, the second-largest charitable foundation in the world, raise awareness among non-scientific audiences about the groundbreaking work it supports, Zone visited three continents in three weeks to speak to world-leading scientists, then produced a series of four videos to hig...

After and comes generation alpha. They're already influencing purchasing decisions in their family, demanding more interactive, responsive experiences from brands...

Forget millennials, Gen Alpha is here (mostly) Gen Alpha is ready to take center stage, replacing marketers' obsession with millennials. Here’s what you need to know to get ahead.