Bot-powered commerce is on a tipping point in Singapore according to the new SAP Hybris Singapore Christmas Shopper Survey 2017.

Executives know by now that they can’t get past social networks. They understood that social media has a say in their business future, especially when their competitors are already active on Facebook and Twitter, convinced and full of motivation to make up the time. Impatient, however, if they are not crowned with success immediately, their motivation and interest in their blog and network profile vanishes fast.

Adobe Advertising Cloud, the first end-to-end platform for managing advertising across traditional TV and digital formats, just announced that it has a solution to the industry’s biggest hassle – a lack of transparency. Despite impressive technological innovation, marketers indeed still struggle to answer basic questions like where their ad dollars are going and how their ads are performing, aside from issues like poor media quality, hidden fees and misaligned incentives.

Material in an online publication, which resembles the publication's editorial content but is paid for by an advertiser and intended to promote the advertiser's product, is called native advertising. Be it an article or video, native advertising is produced by a marketer with the specific intent to promote a product, while matching the form and style which would otherwise be seen in the work of the platform's editorial staff.

With an increasing number of clothing & footwear retailers offering delayed payment options in an attempt to drive conversion, retailers who offer ‘try before you buy’ options - and are well placed to cope with processing returned goods - will be most likely to make the service a success, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is clearly a game changer that impacts and transforms our daily live in all ranks, since with its emergence a myriad of user data is getting collected and analyzed in a matter of seconds. Naturally, this raises privacy and security concerns globally.

Most executives make their decisions based on the perspectives, trends and cycles that are already known today. However, this view carries the risk of thinking too linearly and of missing out on the crucial innovation point.

The mobile advertising platform ‘AdColony’ met the stringent requirements from leading advertising accountability group, the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), and received the coveted Certified Against Fraud certification.

Kantar Millward Brown recently analyzed the world's most important digital media trends of the new year. According to the market research and consulting firm, a new distribution of advertising budgets can be expected, as well as consumer innovations in areas such as Walled Gardens, Branded Entertainment and Artificial Intelligence:

According to Getty Images’ 2018 Visual Trends predictions, brands and the media will redefine modern masculinity this year. The expert in visual communications identified ‘Masculinity Undone’, ‘Second Renaissance’ and ‘Conceptual Realism’ as the trends society will be most responsive to this year.

According to Gartner, 25% of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020, up from less than two percent in 2017.

Sercomm, a manufacturer and supplier of telecom equipment, just launched its new series of LTE-M IoT devices at the Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, Spain.

With the advantages of extended transmission range, a lengthened battery life, and better mobility, Sercomm's full range of LTE-M IoT devices offers ideal solutions for applications including youth/senior safety, asset protection, smart meter, transportation and environment monitoring. Leveraging the fully-deployed LTE-M network service of Orange, a leading telecommunication operator in Europe, Sercomm's new LTE-M devices answer the needs of numerous markets to catch the upcoming IoT business opportunities.

According to eMarketer, programmatic is still in its infancy in several emerging markets in Asia Pacific, but more mature markets are beginning to mirror the US’ and Western Europe’s adoption rates, raising the question why programmatic is taking off in some markets, but not others, and what the future holds for ad buying automation in the region. Will the fashion e-commerce industry lead the movement?

Growth in marketing budgets has stalled after continued increases over recent years, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. that states marketing budgets hit a plateau in 2017 after three years of growth, with budgets falling from 12.1% of company revenue in 2016 to 11.3% in 2017, representing a return to 2015 levels. Hence, CMOs have modest expectations in 2018. Only 15% say they expect a significant increase in budget; 52% expect a slight increase, and one-third even expect their budgets to be cut or frozen.