Staff generally see more of a company’s advertising than its customers do. But even so, brands are often dropped on them from a long way up, without an explanation of the full story, or the thought process behind them. And that’s a waste of potential advocacy, says Goodfolk’s Michael Easton.

E-commerce is booming—and it’s becoming increasingly mobile. So domestic retailers will need to invest in this area if they hope to compete with international retailers, writes Geri Ellis.

Last year, in a star-studded clip for code.org, rapper and singer Will.i.am declared coders the new rock stars. But a small percentage of Kiwi developers are female and the dropout rates for females studying computer science are much higher than for males. Powershop’s Kelly Cheeseman thinks that needs to change.

In the first of an irregular series, Paul Catmur, the managing partner of Barnes, Catmur & Friends, shares his views on life, advertising and other annoyances, such as “the disproportionately high number of people with digital in their title who are talking out of their arse”.

In an age where product information is readily available, Andrew Lewis says brand advertising is losing its efficacy in directing consumers’ choices—and it may even be making brands irrelevant.

What many traditional retailers fail to see is that the only thing standing between them and getting the upper hand on their virtual online counterparts is technology, and embracing what it can add to a customer’s total retail experience, writes Vaughan Reed.

Creating content that goes viral isn’t just about creating good content. It’s also about knowing how to fan the flames, writes Joanna James.

In an increasingly connected world, it’s not just about big data. It’s about big, useful, responsibly-collected data that can be used to make customers’ lives easier. And brands that don’t start earning their data will eventually lose out to those that do, says Christopher Dawson.

Content marketing is on the rise, but it’s not a shift that’s easy to make for all organisations. Here are three takeaways from the recent Content Marketing Conference that might help.

Nigel Hollis, author, award-winning thinker and executive vice president and chief global analyst at Colmar Brunton’s global partner Millward Brown, brings 30 years of research experience to bear on his understanding of how marketing communications can build and maintain brands. He gave a presentation in New Zealand this morning on how smart brands make more money. And he answered a few of our curly ones.

Whether it’s trips to Cuba or brands and businesses, memory trumps experience in the human brain, says Andrew Lewis. So you need to design your services with that in mind.

The insight that kids are clever is nothing new, but Michael Goldthorpe’s experience at his son’s ‘take Dad to work day’ showed just how fearlessly they come up with new ideas. If you’re looking for genius, unlearn what you know.

APN’s Sheryl Dunlop is swanning about in Rome at the Festival of Media Global. Here’s five things that caught her attention on the first day.

As part of the prize for winning The Herald Advertising Challenge, a couple of FCBers got a trip to Rome to attend the Festival of Media Global. Here’s Kevin Walker’s take on the first day.

New research shows if all our businesses made more use of the internet, it could add $34 billion in productivity boosts to our economy. It’s hard to know where to start on this journey, but Google public policy manager Ross Young is urging companies to take the next steps.