Scrum50 Partners with Salsify to Offer Best in Class eCommerce Solutions
Leave a CommentWe’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Salsify, the world’s leading product experience management (PXM) platform. Our partnership will allow us to expand our services creating best in class strategy, content and syndication across large eTailers and DTC platforms.
As eCommerce trends begin to surge, it’s crucial for brands to optimize their digital shelf with an eye towards conversion. With this partnership, we’re able to provide solutions that align with your brand’s needs efficiently.
“Salsify has long recognized Scrum50 as being an incredibly agile and effective ecommerce marketing firm,” said Morgan McAlenney, director, strategic alliances at Salsify. “We’re very excited to have Scrum50 be part of Salsify’s larger partner ecosystem and are looking forward to working with them to drive and execute impactful strategies for brands looking to win on the Digital Shelf.”
After building successful eBusiness programs for Mondelēz, Luxury Beauty and Fragrance Players, Gerber, Welch’s, Revlon, Elizabeth Arden and more, we’re ready to take on new challenges and bring our content to the next level with this partnership.
About Scrum50
Scrum50 is the first born-agile marketing agency. Our mission is to marry world-class strategic creative with efficiency by embracing agile marketing approaches — employing shorter production sprints managed by uniquely-talented hybrid teams. We focus on three competency areas for clients:Agency Services,eBusiness, and Digital Transformation.
About Salsify
Salsify is the world’s leading Product Experience Management (PXM) platform. We empower brand manufacturers to accelerate digital growth by delivering the product experiences consumers demand anywhere they choose to shop online. Salsify’s platform combines the power of PIM and DAM capabilities, the industry’s broadest commerce ecosystem, and actionable insights to orchestrate compelling product experiences through every digital touchpoint. The world’s biggest brands including Coca-Cola, Bosch, GSK, Rawlings, and Fruit of the Loom use Salsify every day to stand out on the digital shelf. To date, Salsify has raised a total of $98.1 million in funding, led by Greenspring Associates, Underscore VC, Venrock, Matrix Partners and North Bridge.
For more information, please visit: http://www.salsify.com.
Conair Leverages Amazon Prime Day to Launch a Fresh, New Look
Leave a CommentThe heritage brand reinvents itself for savvy eCommerce consumers
STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, 7/1/19— Conair is empowering shoppers to “Be the Pro” with their immersive Amazon brand store and bold new image. Launching in time for Prime Day, the brand built on the zeitgeist of “self-care” and blogger culture to roll out new product lines and reintroduce the diverse offerings under the Conair umbrella.
Conair recognized Prime Day as the ideal opportunity to put a fresh foot forward. The brand worked with its eCommerce AOR (Agency of Record), Scrum50 to develop a strategic platform based on Amazon shopper behaviors in the health, beauty and hair fashion appliance categories. “Our strategic and creative approach to driving product conversions can be vastly different based on retailer, category and brand. It’s not a one size fits all” says Stacy Thomson, VP of eBusiness at Scrum50.
“We’ve always been on trend with our innovations. Now we’ll be ahead of the trend when it comes to how customers like to shop,” said Robin Linsley, VP of Marketing at Conair. “The beauty and style industry changes quickly,” Linsley said. “That’s why it’s so important to develop and go live with great ideas at the speed of life.”
The Conair and Scrum50 teams partnered to quickly develop a creative platform, including the design, photography, development and launch of a premium brand store for more than 300 products in less than 90 days. Now they’re at the ready to make a splash on Prime Day.
About Conair
In 1959, Conair built its business on the first “pistol grip” hair dryer—revolutionizing hair care. Today, it’s a global leader in the manufacturing and distribution of personal care, grooming, health and beauty products; premium kitchen electrics, tools, and even cookware. www.Conair.com
About Scrum50
Scrum50 is the first-born agile marketing agency combining world-class strategic creative with efficiency. In addition to Conair, Scrum50 has built successful eBusiness programs for Mondelēz, Luxury Beauty and Fragrance Players, Gerber, Welch’s, Revlon, Elizabeth Arden and more. www.Scrum50.com
Source: Profitero; 2018 Prime Day sales lift vs average daily sales, Amazon.com
Creating Killer Conversion-Driving Visual Content on Amazon
Leave a CommentContent is king, right? Right. So it goes without saying that all your visual content in Amazon should be as professional, educational and impactful as possible. If your product doesn’t look good, people will believe with all their heart and soul that it is NOT a good product. Consider Amazon as your most powerful conversion-driving Content marketing platform and make it work for you.
Amazon Visual Content Rules
Get familiar. The eCommerce giant has well-defined image guidelines, and playing by the rules is always rewarded. After all, it’s in both your brand and Amazon’s best interest for images to follow their best practices. Failure to do so often results in death, well the death of ROI. Death of sales, and death of your product page, A+ content, or Brand store going live because it’s not gonna happen without their approval. But with a little creativity, your Amazon enhanced brand content can really sell your story (and a lot of product).
Think Mobile First
Mobile friendly hero images are a must. When creating and managing visual content, think about how your brand pages are going to stack in mobile and think about what will actually show in your header image when it scales down to size. Amazon’s projected share of holiday sales via mobile app in 2018 was 40%, up from 35% in 2017, including $9.4 billion in incremental sales. That percentage includes sales from Vendor Central (sold by Amazon) and Seller Central (marketplace sales by retailers).[1]
Product Image Photography
What’s in the Box?! No, really, show me what’s in the box. Setting customer expectations of what they get is critical to purchase decision and reducing returns. Unboxing videos and clear, beautiful shots of everything you get with your purchase located in the gallery images help to win on Amazon. And anything that is NEW, like “new packaging” or redesigned products, should definitely be showcased as such to clear up confusion as people compare your products to others selling your products on Amazon.
Refresh That Amazon Content
Constantly evolving content is a must for the Amazon environment. Seasonal content refreshes are key to keeping repeat consumers engaged. Let’s face it, people get bored quick these days in an oversaturated eCommerce landscape. Embrace it and keep them coming back for more with the occasional Amazon Listing Optimization. Beyond boredom, the eCommerce giant is constantly changing. Templates change, image sizes change, formats change, and you may not get notified. So you need to be checking those pages and assume adjustments will need to be made (plan for at least 2-3 times a year). It’s also good to have a test and learn approach. Shift placement of visual content, include lifestyle, remove lifestyle, add more color—the best way to win is to make a hypothesis and test it.
Use Lifestyle Imagery on Amazon
Amazon product photos in lifestyle settings are how people relate to your products. Lifestyle is for the living and the living shop and compare on the site. A gorgeous kitchen inspires culinary genius’ to buy your premium pots and pans. That weekend warrior is convinced he (or she) can do that half marathon seeing a picture of those slick cross trainers pounding the pavement. How could she not? The pictures looked amazing. Time to order on Prime because those items will transform you.
Sprinkle in Some Text
Think outside (the first) box. You can’t add text to the main image, but, it can be added to the additional images for each ASIN if used correctly. A smart keyword strategy will always help supplement the visuals and boost your ranking in the site’s search. Scrum50, a leader in Amazon content creation, cites the COS (Content Optimization Score) as a key indicator of conversion opportunity. Among other factors, visual quality and copy content play a large role in its calculation and potential for the ASIN’s success.
Tricks of the Trade
We can’t give you all of our secrets, but we can put them to good use for your brand as your Amazon Marketing Agency or Amazon consultant. Let’s talk about what we can do to make your brand kick ass on the eCommerce giant, deliver effective agile creative and improve your Amazon Ranking. To get more info, contact us today.
[1] Marvin, Ginny, Report: 2018 holiday sales to grow 15%, driven by Amazon and mobile season, Marketing Land, 2018 https://marketingland.com/report-2018-holiday-sales-to-grow-15-driven-by-amazon-and-mobile-248468
Growing Up on Amazon: The Radically Different Way Gen Z Shops
Leave a CommentIf you think the up and coming generation: Gen Z are basically the same as Millennials…you might want to look up from your Avocado toast.
This new posse of tenacious teens and twentysomethings is already poised to take the eCommerce world by storm.
Members of Gen Z are 13–22 years old. 90% have their own phones, they make half their purchases using said phones and 64% say they’re heavily influenced by imagery online when making shopping decisions.[1] They don’t cozy up to brands. They ARE the brand. They’re not idealistic. They’re pragmatic. And they’re not curators. They’re creators.
Perhaps of most interest: Gen Z represents up to $143 billion in buying power, so understanding how they think, shop and consider the world around them is the next silver bullet.
Gen Z & Amazon: The Mall Effect
For Gen Z, going to Amazon to “hang out” is a thing. It’s a place where emotion trumps practicality, insightful content turns a sale, and the “mall effect” makes the Internet shopping giant the hottest place to see and be seen.
Like most shopping malls, Amazon is designed to facilitate the “Gruen Transfer,” or the moment when consumers enter a store and are intentionally surrounded by a confusing layout, which distracts them from their original intentions…priming them for impulse buys.
- They go to Amazon when they’re bored, just to hang out
- They scroll for days because of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
- They get hooked on color…imagining how everything would look with an outfit or in photos for social media (right down to their candy!)
Gen Z & Amazon: Brand Challenges and Solutions
Like every generation, Gen Z comes with its own set of challenges, many of them to do simply with the challenges of youth:
- Consistency of available funds
- Price Point
- Sorting through all the options on Amazon
- Waiting for delivery (vs. going in person)
- Reliant on parents account or funds
Gen Z Phenomenons & How Brands Can Meet Them Halfway
- Understand Ongoing Cart Curation—purchase may not be at the time of discovery. Gen Z are practical and their money isn’t always their own. They constantly browse, adding to their Amazon carts products they may need, products that catch their eye, or products they want to think about before making a final purchase. They are cash-strapped and are usually curating their Amazon cart while waiting for funds to become available. Making it into the Amazon cart is half the battle…making it into the final purchase is the win.[3]
- Craft an Experience—Gen Z are willing to browse until they find something that compliments or enhances who they are, and that helps promote their own brand.
- Show Them What You Can Do For Their Image—Gen Z have a desire to stand out and to be different, but they also need to be accepted and perceived as cool and unique. They’re searching for something no one else has or something they can “discover” that others will want to emulate. Creating unique experiences that help them visualize how your brand enhances their presentation as a person, will help break through the noise on Amazon.
- Prime It and Price It Right—Gen Z are more frugal than Millennials, so while they may be browsing and experiencing all their options, ultimately, they will filter down by Amazon Prime options and price. They are pragmatic and planners—and they want things fast. So while experiences matter…if they filter you out because of the lack of convenience or price is too high, you won’t even be considered.
- Build a Compelling Narrative—Gen Z view brands as representations of their values, an extension of themselves. If they associate with a brand, what does that say about them? Are they part of something bigger than themselves, something cool and unique? They don’t want you to talk at them, they want you to show them who you are and include them as part of the process. Consider your brand presence on Amazon and how you stand out against competitors in the same space. Authenticity, transparency and having a greater purpose are extremely high attributes valued by Gen Z.
- Break Through the Noise—Generation Z are digital natives. This is all they’ve known. They have incredibly short attention spans and are used to making decisions quickly. Add that to an incredibly noisy space of Amazon and their need to browse through everything, and you’ve got one chaotic blizzard of brands clawing over one another. Imagery, colors, showing people they can relate to, prime availability, and price all weigh heavily into your product being findable on Amazon and making it into the Gen Z consideration set.
- Cast a Wider Net—Millennials and GenX know what they want. They search exactly for that thing and get results served up that give us a selection of that thing, which makes a brand’s search strategy easy. If you’re selling sneakers, the search strategy would naturally include shoe-related keywords. But in a Gen Z world, where browsing is life and impulse buys online are the norm—they think about their purchases emotionally. So that same sneaker brand may need to start to look at keywords like “accessories.”
Reach Gen Z with eCommerce Agile Methodology.
Scrum50 is the first born agile marketing agency. Their mission is to marry world-class strategic creative with efficiency by embracing agile marketing approaches—employing shorter production sprints managed by uniquely-talented hybrid teams. They focus on three competency areas for clients: (1) Agency Services, (2) eBusiness, and (3) Digital Transformation.
[1] Generation Z, New insights into the mobile-first mindset of teens, think with Google, 2016 https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/interactive-report/gen-z-a-look-inside-its-mobile-first-mindset/
[2] Generation Z, The Newest Generation, Response Media,
http://www.responsemedia.com/generation-z-the-newest-generation/
[3] Gen Z Amazon Consumer Journey Group Research, Scrum50, 2018
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Content Marketing is Dead
Leave a CommentContent Marketing as we knew it is dead. The days where you can pack your site full of text-based articles and watch your SEO results soar are gone. And so are the days of coasting by on the strength your brand name alone. Now, a new evolution of Content is more important than ever to your marketing strategy.
Non-branded searches are up 10% year over year.* That means your target audience is less likely to search for your brand – and more likely to search about topics they care about. The key for effective content creation is to find the intersection of what your customer cares about, and where your brand can provide expertise.
Today’s content marketing starts with defining your Authority to Publish. A brand’s Authority to Publish lies at the intersection of what their customer cares about and elements of a brand’s DNA. Here are a few questions you should ask as you improve content marketing efforts – both digital content and traditional content – for your brand.
4 Questions to Help Define Content for Your Brand
What content do my customers care about?
Sure, your customers care about a lot of stuff…so find out where our brand can connect with them. Start with search and SEO. Find out if anyone is actually searching for the topics you want to create content about. Follow trends. Ignoring news coverage and trending topics that relate to your brand could be very damaging.
Is my brand an expert or leader?
Define your brand’s area of expertise, then stick to it. There may be many, many, many topics your brand could use in an editorial calendar and content plan but narrow it down to your zone of expertise.
What content do customers realistically expect from my brand?
This is where that clearly defined zone of expertise really comes into play. Because if you’re a brand of house cleaners and you’re writing content about flower boxes…sorry, but you’re in the wrong sandbox. Customers don’t want to hear from your brand about things that are just barely in your circle of influence.
Where will anyone find this content?
Forgetting about content distribution is a common content strategy mistake. Your content plan needs to work hand-in-hand with your distribution channels. Each piece needs to have social media content supporting it – at the very minimum. And in most cases, paid social media, to get the pump primed.
Keeping Content Creation Effective
Keeping a close eye on your brand’s authority to publish is critical to creating effective content. There’s no sense in cranking out content for the sake of cranking out content. In today’s content marketing model, digital content needs to drive search, sales, awareness, and handle some reputation management – all at once. If you keep within a focused zone of expertise, your content will be much more effective.
* L2 Think Tank, Brand is Not Enough March 14, 2019
Mondelēz International Names Scrum50 its eCommerce Agency of Record
Leave a CommentSOUTH NORWALK, CT – Pioneer agile marketing agency Scrum50 has been awarded eCommerce Agency and Amazon Agency of Record (AOR) status for global consumer packaged goods company Mondelēz International, leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, and candy, with brands such as OREO, Ritz, Chips Ahoy!, Belvita, Halls, Trident, Cadbury. The partnership solidifies Scrum50’s highly-regarded credentials in eCommerce, and specifically the Amazon marketplace, where many brands are struggling to keep pace with commerce platform and its many intricacies.
The AOR distinction was awarded after a series of successful 2018 projects together—including Amazon-specific Trident Vibes launch and seasonal Back-to-School/Halloween programs for Multi-Pack snacks, OREO, Sour Patch Kids, and Swedish Fish.
“In our relatively short time working together, Scrum50 has demonstrated a command of the Amazon landscape, delivered thoughtful, insight-driven creative, then executed efficiently through their agile approach,” said Chris Butler, Head of eCommerce NA at Mondelēz International “Our eCommerce channel has grown share in very competitive categories and seasons much quicker than anticipated thanks to Scrum50’s strategy and support.”
Setting Brands Up for Success in Amazon
In addition to their work for Mondelēz, Scrum50 has built successful eBusiness programs for Luxury Beauty and Fragrance, Gerber Naturals Baby Formula, Conair, Welch’s, Revlon, Elizabeth Arden and more.
“Our eCommerce success relies specifically on the category and shopper insights we develop together in partnership with our clients so that we can fully understand what makes them tick and then deliver that messaging and creative directly to them.” Says Stacy Thomson, VP of eBusiness for Scrum50, who leads the charge in client growth on the ebusiness side. “Our clients overall have found success through our work on their Amazon platform with our expertise and strategy from product details pages with custom content, to brand stores and display units.”
Press and Insights About the Scrum50 and Mondelēz International eCommerce Partnership
Originally published in: Marketing Dive
Naming Scrum50 as its designated e-commerce AOR points to how important e-commerce is becoming for Mondelez as well as for the consumer packaged goods sector more broadly. Mondelez said the agency was selected for its expertise in Amazon marketplace as evidenced in past efforts. Mondelez is clearly working to ramp up e-commerce across its brands as consumers, especially millennials, do more of their grocery shopping online. Amazon commands 30% of online grocery spending in the U.S., according to a Brick Meets Click survey cited by Supermarket News. P&G has also been pushing aggressively into e-commerce with new packaging, acquisitions and key partnerships and other marketers in this sector are similarly focused on establishing closer relationships with consumers through online sales.
Teaming up with Scrum50 will allow Mondelez to tap into a trove of product category and shopper insights that can help the company better understand its consumer base and deliver more personalized messaging. The news comes as Mondelez has already been bringing an e-commerce element to recent marketing campaigns.
Pickups also appeared in: AdAge and MediaPost.
What is eCommerce Agile Methodology? About CT Ad Agency Scrum50
Scrum50 is the first born agile marketing agency. Their mission is to marry world-class strategic creative with efficiency by embracing agile marketing approaches — employing shorter production sprints managed by uniquely-talented hybrid teams. They focus on three competency areas for clients: (1) Agency Services, (2) eBusiness, and (3) Digital Transformation.
Scrum50 named to Ad Age Best Place to Work List
Leave a CommentYes! Scrum50 is #14 on the Ad Age Best Places to Work list. We’re honored and proud. It means our culture of doing isn’t just productive, but it’s fulfilling for our employees too.
The Ad Age list is based on survey results from both employers and employees. It take all the usual stuff into account – compensation, perks, etc. – but also opportunities for advancement, diversity, responsiveness to issues…all those things that make people feel good about where they work.
We started from scratch – 2 guys and an idea for a marketing agency that just might be crazy enough to work. So we started the first born-Agile marketing agency back in 2014. Now we’re growing…and fast.
From our renovated factory space in South Norwalk, CT, we’re changing the way digital marketing agencies work. Our philosophy is faster better brilliance. It means we like to bring great ideas to life and test them in-market (instead of letting them fade due to over-discussion and over-crafting). Our teams are lean, and made up of multi-talented, multi-faceted polymaths who are encouraged to work beyond their titles.
Getting on this list proves that we haven’t just built a company, but a culture that lets our employees feel free to show off their unique talents, make an impact, and go to work in a great space with great people.
Want to come work with us? Let’s talk.