38% of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) believe that the GDPR does not apply to customer data they may come into contact with.
This is according to the Data & Marketing Association’s (DMA) ‘SMBs and GDPR’ report, created in partnership with Xynics, which investigated the impact of the GDPR on organisations with fewer than 250 employees.
In addition, a near-fifth of SMBs (18%) feel the impact of the GDPR has been negative, which is around four times the number seen in previous research of the entire data and marketing industry, including large organisations and multinationals.
Highlighting how these smaller organisations may be struggling with the new laws more than their larger counterparts.
“While most of the data and marketing industry has long been aware, understood and implemented the necessary strategies to be compliant with the GDPR, there is a concern about knowledge gaps and training made available to smaller and medium-sized businesses. Of greatest concern is that 38% of them appear to believe that the GDPR does not apply to customer data they may acquire and process,” said Tim Bond, Head of Insight at the DMA.
“SMBs form the bedrock of our economy and yet are the ones with the lowest knowledge and, therefore, the highest risk. We’ve been staggered by the increasing number of businesses, suppliers and partners that remain non-compliant with the GDPR,” stated Mike Kilby, Solutions Consultant & Data Protection Practitioner, Xynics Data Solutions Ltd. “Part of the problem is that although some businesses know they are having difficulties; the vast majority don’t know where to go for help.”
Overall, sentiment among SMBs about the new laws has been positive, whether that’s in relation to marketing programmes (54%), sales (49%) or internal processes (60%). In fact, the 57% of respondents who reported a generally positive impact on their business was even higher than the 44% we saw for all businesses in our ‘Data Privacy: An Industry Perspective 2019’ report (57%).
“Compliance is clearly an important issue when it comes to GDPR, but it’s also important to remember that the benefits of being diligent with data go far beyond that. This strategy already appears to be paying dividends for some, but the future success of our industry will be dependent on all organisations placing the needs of the customer front and centre,” added Bond.
DLMDD, the sonic branding agency, has today launched a new specialist production division, DLMDD Productions, to cater for multi-disciplinary music production projects across the advertising, media and the film landscape.
As well as realising and bringing to life the agency’s sonic branding initiatives for clients including Amazon, Co-op, Babbel and NBC Universal, DLMDD Productions will bring its world-class roster of global music talent to the advertising and production communities. The division builds upon projects already delivered for agencies such as McCann, BBH, Hey Human and Saatchi & Saatchi across brands including X-Box, Guinness, KFC and Toyota.
Sascha Darroch-Davies, DLMDD Co-Founder and Agency Partners Director, says:
“We’re a year into the DLMDD journey and more certain than ever that music and sound offer brands and marketeers a unique and special kind of magic to reach their audiences with. We’re working with some extremely exciting clients who recognise this and 2020 sees the launch of ground-breaking activations from them. We’re also seeing increasing demand from our friends in ad-land who want to harness music’s power to connect, engage and inspire. Our new production division is designed to give agency creatives and producers a unique and collaborative way of working, not only with us but with our talent network – some of the foremost musicians, artists, producers and composers globally. It’s an ethos and way of working which we believe will be a real industry first.”
DLMDD Productions will offer world-class music services, specialising in original composition and production, music supervision, and talent partnerships. In line with its growth, the business has bolstered its team with the appointment of two new Creative Music Consultants, Lizz Harman and Erin McCullough. Both bring vibrant and active careers as musicians into their new roles; Lizz as a songwriter and topliner and Erin as a musical director for acapella choruses.
DLMDD Productions will draw on the team’s vast experience managing music and sound projects for brands including HSBC, M&S, Volvo, Unilever, Amazon, Coca Cola, Nokia, Magners, O2, NSPCC and Ben & Jerry’s, working with artists including Dizzee Rascal, Zane Lowe, Avicii, Guy Chambers and The Darkness.
Despite mental health matters being firmly in the public domain, over 700,000 UK businesses (12 per cent), do not believe in supporting the emotional and social wellbeing of their staff, according to research amongst HR decision makers undertaken on behalf of GRiD, the industry body for the group risk protection sector.
Flexible working: most popular way to deliver emotional wellbeing support
Of those businesses (88 per cent) that do believe they have an emotional duty of care for their employees, the most popular method to support staff is via flexible or agile working, with 43 per cent claiming to offer this opportunity.
Flexible working is often highly valued by staff but employers should not consider their ‘emotional support’ box ticked by offering this alone. There are a number of ways to address emotional wellbeing in the workplace, and even those employers who offer a full programme of internal initiatives, should also ensure that professional support and counselling are readily available for those most in need.
Work-life balance initiatives
The second most common way to deliver emotional support is by offering work-life balance initiatives, such as encouraging staff to take their lunchbreak away from their desk and deterring a culture of working long or late.
The research highlighted the most prevalent methods that employers use to support their staff with emotional wellbeing as:
• Flexible working/agile working (43%)
• Work-life balance initiatives (33%)
• Ability to take days off to support mental health (31%)
• Arranging social events (31%)
• Access to professional support, such as counselling (27%)
• Stress management initiatives (19%)
• Mental health initiatives e.g. mindfulness training (18%)
• Specialist providers in place to provide support, such as counselling (18%)
• Mental health first aid training (15%)
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD said:
“Group life assurance is the most popular group risk product with over 9.8 million people insured. As well as providing a financial pay-out, it can be hugely beneficial to staff as it often includes access to an Employee Assistance Programme which will support staff with day-to-day emotional wellbeing and access to counselling, neither of which are claim-dependent.
“During 2019, there were 75,446 interactions with the additional help and support services that are funded by group risk insurers across employer-sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness policies. Whilst this is an impressive number, given that the overall number of people covered by this industry exceeds 12.8 million, it’s clear that many more people could benefit from this emotional support.
“It’s vital that both employers and employees know they have access to this added-value support, as for many it really is an untapped resource that is not being used to its full potential.
“As for the 12 per cent of businesses that do not believe there is any requirement to support the emotional wellbeing of staff, they will certainly feel the consequences at some point, whether that be a higher-than-average absence rate, falling productivity, or lower staff retention. No forward-thinking organisation can afford to ignore the emotional wellbeing of its most valued asset.”
Clearvision, the largest Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner in Europe, has secured its position on The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For list for a second consecutive year, picking up a 3-star status from the b-Heard survey along the way.
Every year, The Sunday Times publishes a list of best companies to work for in a range of categories from ‘best big’ to ‘best not-for-profit’, and ‘best companies’ to ‘best small’. Organisations enter themselves to compete for a place on the prestigious list, and are sent a link to the b-Heard survey which is completed by employees; results are then checked against the Best Companies Index (BCI) score.
The survey which measures ‘8 factors of workplace engagement’ through a series of 70 academically designed questions, is completed anonymously by employees to ensure accurate results.
In 2019, Clearvision entered for the first time, achieving a 2-star status from workplace engagement analysts b-Heard, whose scale starts at ‘Ones to Watch’ and goes all the way through to the maximum ‘3 Star’ accreditation.
For Clearvision to achieve 3 Stars — denoting the highest standard of workplace engagement, only awarded to organisations with a BCI score of 738 or higher, is a massive achievement reflecting extraordinary levels of workplace engagement.
Clearvision CEO Gerry Tombs commented,
“Five years ago, my goal was for Clearvision to make the Times 100 list, and in 2019 we achieved this. Thinking ahead, we challenged ourselves to improve our position by becoming an even better employer, taking much of what we’d learnt from the 2019 feedback and implementing changes where necessary. While this award is fantastic, an even better accomplishment for me has been witnessing year-on-year improvements in our Visionaries (staff).
“The Times 100 achievement has been an enabler for improvements in recruiting A-class people, resulting in decreased employee churn, and a better atmosphere in the workplace overall. We have a lot more to learn in this exciting journey together.”
The changes mentioned by Gerry, involved in-house experts developing software to better understand how teams operate, and how different personalities complement each other. Getting team dynamics right leads to happier, more focused employees, and as Gerry put it: “People are a critical element to our business, so it is important that we continue to invest in them.”
Alongside these efforts, a group called Hearts and Minds was formed, which focuses on employee wellbeing. As part of this, employees went off-site, volunteering their time at the Blue Cross and Samaritans. Other members of staff participated in charitable events on an individual basis, receiving sponsorship from colleagues. Visionaries enjoyed expert speakers addressing a number of topics during mental health awareness week, as well as guided meditation sessions from a qualified yogi.
Sri Lankan physicist, economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Prof. Mohan Munasinghe will open Europe’s first sustainable innovation event, Planetiers World Gathering, which will take place from the 23rd – 25th of April 2020 at the Altice Arena, Lisbon, Portugal.
The inaugural Planetiers World Gathering 2020 will bring together over 10,000 attendees, 100 speakers, 200 exhibitors, and 100 investors from over 50 countries. The focus of the event will be on finding and enhancing solutions for climate change, poverty, education, and hunger.
The conference will be opened by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Professor Mohan Munasinghe. Mr Munasinghe holds several awards for his exceptional global contributions to climate change and sustainable development. His research has also served as the foundation for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Planetiers World Gathering 2020 will bring together leading companies and activists from around the world to debate sustainability issues and highlight potential solutions. This year’s speakers include:
Mike Berners-Lee, Author of the bestselling book ‘There is No Planet B’
Daymond John, Investor & Star of ABC’s Shark Tank
Gina McCarthy, Former Administrator of EPA
David Orban, Investor & Advisor of Singularity University
Gunter Pauli – co creator of the “Circular economy” concept
Gustavo Carona, Doctors Without Borders Associate
Speaking about the line-up, Co-founder and CEO of Planetiers Sérgio Ribeiro said
“We are excited to announce the exceptional speaker line up to Planetiers World Gathering, these individuals are all making a difference globally in a sustainable way. Their creative, empowering mindset and entrepreneurial spirit allows them to make real change and impact, and that’s what Planetiers World Gathering is all about”.
The Summit aims to become a meeting point of the world’s solutions-focused startups and leaders to accelerate progress in tackling the planet’s sustainability challenges. This year’s event will include mentoring and acceleration for start-ups, community exhibition area for cities to showcase their programs and solutions, workshops and educational Initiatives for youth leaders as well as a marketplace exhibition area. Attendees will also have access to keynote speakers and panels and a wide range of networking events into the evening.
Businesses and the public UK wide are being encouraged to nominate exceptional talent for the 2020 Black British Business Awards (BBBAwards) and showcase the significant economic contributions black British professionals make in creative, corporate and tech-based industries.
Now in its seventh year, the BBBAwards are launching the 2020 nomination season with a reception hosted by Fortnum and Mason at the Royal Exchange and sponsored by Wellington Management. This reception will explore the theme of power in the workplace, and how to navigate your career.
From bankers to fashion designers, tech entrepreneurs and artistic directors, there is an outstanding pool of talent in the UK that the BBBAwards highlight and celebrate with their suite of programmes.
Melanie Eusebe and Sophie Chandauka, Chair and Co-Founders of the Black British Business Awards said: “There are an incredible variety of business leaders and rising stars that are contributing significantly to the UK economy and making strides in their chosen industries. The awards ceremony and our programmes provide an opportunity for business around the country to identify, celebrate and accelerate the unsung talent that we work with”.
The six categories open for nomination for both rising stars and senior leaders include:
Arts and Media (media, design, fashion, performance art, publishing, advertising)
Consumer and Luxury (food, beverage, retail, travel, cosmetics, luxury goods)
Entrepreneur (business must have been operational for 18+ months prior to 23 April 2020)
Alongside the award ceremony, the BBBAwards produce a series of programmes throughout the year to support organisations in the drive to accelerate the progress of their BAME talent. Based on research examining why BAME middle managers do not progress into senior executive roles in significant business in the UK, the BBBAwards produced the BAME Talent Accelerator. On the 26 February, the BBBAwards will celebrate and share the learnings from their programme in partnership with Bloomberg LP.
Mentor Mondays enters into its fourth successful year. The online series equips young professionals with practical strategies and tools to pursue business and leadership excellence. This year, Goldman Sachs hosted an interactive workshop on February 24, advising high-potential BAME middle-managers on how to jumpstart their careers.
Sponsors of the 2020 BBBAwards include Barclays, Baker McKenzie, Bloomberg L.P., Cisco, the Executive Leadership Council, Fortnum and Mason, Freshfields, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Wellington and Wells Fargo.
Connect Distribution, the UK’s leading provider of spare parts, accessories, consumables and small domestic appliances, has launched its Spring/Summer 2020 catalogue.
The brochure is packed full of more than 1,000 high quality products from 25 industry-leading brands, including Kenwood, De’Longhi, Braun, Hotpoint, Lavazza and Samsung. There are four easy to navigate sections – floorcare, small appliances, outdoor and cooling – with 158 new product lines added in this latest version.
Each product can be viewed in further detail online and purchased through Connections online, Connect Distribution’s trade only 24/7 electronic ordering platform, which provides the latest information and product availability for customers nationwide. Alongside a fully customisable homepage and dedicated product enquiry team, users can access next day business delivery or Direct Delivery straight to their customers’ doors.
Carl Bould, Sales Director at Connect Distribution, commented: “Our first catalogue of 2020 includes a whole host of exciting new changes. Alongside hundreds of new lines from the industry’s best-known brands, we’ve invested in the team and restructured the business to make sure the right people are in the right place to offer the best possible service.
“Thanks to our long-standing relationships with leading household brands including Hoover, Samsung and De’Longhi, we provide access to the latest product ranges and most sought-after models. By joining forces with VAX, for example, we’re now exclusively offering the Rapid Power Refresh floor cleaner, as well as a wide range of other floor cleaning appliances, to independent retailers across the UK.
“Our aim for this year and beyond is to continue bringing out new services, products and innovations to support our customers in every way we can.”
For more information about Connect Distribution or its all new Spring/Summer 2020 catalogue, visit www.connect-distribution.co.uk.
Fibrepak, a natural packaging material that uses thermoformed wet pulp, is an ideal solution for companies tasked with finding more sustainable packaging for their products.
Made from locally-sourced FSC-certified materials that have come from sustainably managed forests, Fibrepak is high quality, thin-walled and smooth sided, meaning that packaged products do not get scratched.
It can be recycled in traditional waste streams along with paper, compostable and biodegradable materials.
The UK’s Environment Bill, reintroduced to Parliament after Brexit, includes a range of new policies designed to help deal with waste. Manufacturers and distributors of products could soon be mandated to pick up 100% of the cost of dealing with the packaging waste they create.
Fibrepak, which is part of Sonoco, a company ranked 48th in Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies for 2019 offers brands a truly sustainable option. Not only is the packaging natural and renewable, but customers benefit from a high-quality finish and greater precision than is usually associated with traditional moulded pulp packaging.
“We launched Fibrepak in response to a growing demand from customers that were keen to embrace sustainability,” says Anne-Sophie Belamine, European Sales Director.
“The advent of thermoformed fibre gave us a great opportunity to combine this latest technology with our vast experience of thermoforming to deliver bespoke, complex and high-quality packaging for a range of customers, including those in cosmetics, fruit and veg, homecare and electronics.”
Fibrepak is a dust-free material, so there is no particle contamination. It is non-toxic, microwavable, static-free and incredibly shock absorbent. It can also be treated to be moisture resistant for sustained periods.
Unlike rigid cellular plastic foam packaging, there are also plenty of logistics savings to be gained used Fibrepak thanks to its ability to enable product stacking and ‘nesting’.
Production of Fibrepak at the company’s facility in Poznan, Poland is now firmly established, with multiple production lines running.
During manufacture, natural fibres are converted into high tolerance thermoformed pulp products using a unique vacuum technique and ‘cure-in-the-mould’ technology. This uses heat and pressure to press and evaporate fluid from the fibres leaving a completely dry product at the end of the process that is ready for packing.
Fibrepak solutions can be created to a customer’s exact specifications while conforming to ISTA and TUV performance standards. These include clamshells, trays and inserts.
“When the perceived value of a product and quality of packaging is important – and natural fibres are the preferred material choice – our solutions are the answer,” adds Belamine.
Statista’s Luxury Goods Report states that online luxury sales are “projected to grow at twice the market rate” and to have captured “18% of all sales revenue by 2023”. An additional 40% of luxury purchases are in some way influenced by a digital experience but, while luxury consumers get convenience from ecommerce, retail stores aren’t going anywhere.
Traditionally, luxury items are bought after being seen and touched and tried on. Nowadays though luxury brands need to offer more authenticity and personality to engage new buyers, such as millennials (aged 23 to 36), who are reaching their peak spending age. Millennials are also waiting longer before starting families, so they can more easily cash in on their growing spending power.
Recent research by digital experience analytics platform Contentsquare revealed that the luxury watch and jewellery consumer is over 8% more mobile when compared to digital shoppers from a cross-section of industries.
The findings from Contentsquare, which boasts luxury brands including Harvey Nichols, Kurt Geiger, Clarins, L’Oreal, Belstaff and Tiffany as clients, took a closer look at user navigation and conversion to assess the behaviour of the watch and jewelry luxury shoppers.
With the lines between digital and bricks-and-mortar becoming blurred, unifying data sets from all different viewpoints is crucial in painting a thorough picture of the modern-day shopper, Contentsquare’s MD Duncan Keene commented:
“Our report aimed to shed light on the unique online behaviours of watch and jewelry luxury consumers, to help companies grasp a better understanding on how they could better convert insights into action. In order to get a more holistic picture of this unique consumer segment, our research was conducted with a 360-degree analysis approach in mind.”
Contentsquare’s resulting research data suggests that, on average, the luxury watch and jewelry consumer is over 8% more mobile when navigating websites, makes only 3.7 visits on mobile, compared to 6 on desktop, before making an online purchase, and on average views 10.5 pages per visit on mobile compared to 5.6 pages per visit on desktop.
Duncan continued:
“To boost engagement, you must create stories that resonate and motivate them to like your posts and respond through comments. On the other side of engagement, you should be responsive to direct messages or comments. Take advantage of the opportunity to show off your brand personality — be helpful, and highlight your appreciation for their business.
“Brands need to look at more than just mobile versus desktop data sets. They also need to assess the layout of their websites and which page types support ecommerce conversions most. How do these pages impact the overall site journey? By evaluating customer intent and experience, pages can be tailored to help the consumer achieve their end goals.”
A Euclid study revealed that “almost half (48%) of millennials shop in-store a least once per week.” But those in-person shopping sessions don’t always lead to the checkout counter. Instead, they spur online buying instead. This means that luxury brands should consider boosting their ecommerce investments to offer a seamless multi-channel shopping experience.
One of the best ways to stand out is in offering fast and free shipping. This may not seem revolutionary but it will mitigate the main reason shoppers abandon their shopping cart, as Contetnsquare’s research has revealed time and again.
Fast shipping and easy store returns are only a couple of ways to offer excellent customer service to millennial luxury fashion shoppers though as Duncan explains:
“In order to translate the in-store experience that luxury brands excel at into ecommerce success, personalisation is required to maximise customers’ online experiences. Offering your multi-country customer base the ability to shop in their local currency and providing them with custom-tailored shopping experiences are now essential elements to success.”
While many luxury brands tend to focus on the homepage as a key touch point for the ecommerce shopping experience, Contentsquare’s data indicates that this page is only viewed less than two times by luxury watch and jewelry consumers who make purchases, if at all.
Category, product and check-out pages benefit from significantly more views by both mobile and desktop users, compared to the homepage, editorial and information sections of websites, so the research found that it is more beneficial to invest in the checkout and payment and delivery pages.
The research also found that buyers click on the search bar 53% more than on the menu (13%) when they are on the homepage, so the interaction with the search bar seems to be a positive signal of the buyer’s intent.
While it may seem easy enough to treat all consumers equally, the proof is in the data which demands a stronger need for teams to go through specific trends regarding different user segments.
By assessing these insights from Contentsquare, luxury watch and jewelry brands are able to identify the most important online behaviors of their consumer and optimize their journey towards conversion.
To grow online, traditional luxury brands need to adapt and embrace millennial shopping trends. Gucci for example is just one old luxury brand that is proving the ecommerce opportunity is the way forward.
Adapting product offerings for a growing online and multi-channel customer base, and provide more experiential online shopping options, are key to future-proofing businesses.
Announced on what would have been the first day of 2020’s cancelled Mobile World Congress, global tech businesses Audi, CGI IT UK, Mastercard, Safaricom, Sky, and trivago have today announced they have joined disability inclusion campaign The Valuable 500.
Launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in January 2019, over 250 companies have now committed to The Valuable 500, which hopes to have 500 global business leaders and CEOs signed up to the initiative by the UN General Assembly on the 15th September. This is in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to reduce inequality and create inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities.
The tech sector has shown a particularly strong commitment to the campaign. Alongside the new signups, current members include BT, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, NTT, O2, Orange, Salesforce, SoftBank, Sony, Telefonica, strategic partner of The Valuable 500 Virgin Media, Vimpelcom operating under the Beeline brand, and Vodafone.
As technology becomes increasingly entrenched in daily life, accessibility to the modern digitised world is often restricted and it is critical that this is addressed. The 2019 Click-Away Pound Survey found that in 2019, business lost an estimated £17.1 billion due to people abandoning a retail website because of accessibility barriers – an increase of £5.35 billion since 2016.
There are 7.7 billion people in the world of which 4.8 billion, or 62%, are smart phone and feature phone users – illustrating the importance of inclusive design for the 1.3 billion people globally who have a disability. Features such as speech to text and increased font size have already had a dramatic impact on improving lives for all mobile users. Innovation from apps developers, service providers, device manufacturers all have a fundamental role to play in enhancing the accessible world, and education in the business community around this is needed.
Over 250 companies across 26 countries globally are now part of The Valuable 500, marking the halfway point for the campaign, which is also in active discussion with a further 200 companies. The combined revenue of members is now over $4 trillion, with over 10 million employees.
At Davos last month, The World Economic Forum unveiled The Valuable 500 as a Tier 3 official project partner, as the campaign announced the deadline to join The Valuable 500 campaign is now 15th September 2020, coinciding with this year’s UN General Assembly.
Caroline Casey, Founder of The Valuable 500, commented:
“The technology sector has been enormously supportive of The Valuable 500. We welcome the commitment today from so many high-profile technology companies and celebrate the 250 companies who have pledged to put disability on their board agendas to date.
“It is vital that the tech industry prioritises disability inclusion at a senior level. Inclusion drives innovation, and it is no coincidence that some of our most prominent innovations such as the keyboard or remote control were designed with disability in mind. Much has already been achieved by digital service providers, however, more remains to be done and accessibility for disabled people isn’t an issue on which we can halt progress.
“The technology industry has the potential to be one of the greatest enablers when it comes to disability inclusion, from ensuring accessibility on all devices and online platforms is made readily available to all disability categories, to actively embracing the positive potential of incorporating neurodiversity into the talent pool – and it’s vital this potential is realised.
“I call on the good and the great from across the tech, mobile and telecoms industry to join us in prioritising disability inclusion. Our tech leaders need to design in for disabled people so that the 1.3bn disabled people worldwide can benefit from the same developing technology, have the same latest devices and live in the same real digital world as everyone else.”
Michael Joseph, CEO, Safaricom, commented:
“Operating in a developing nation, we witness first-hand the disproportionate effects of inequality and poverty on People with Disability. Guided by our purpose of Transforming Lives and the Sustainable Development Goals, we are committed to driving the Disability Inclusion agenda in the communities we serve.”
Unveiled at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in January 2019, the launch of The Valuable 500 campaign was the first time disability was discussed on the main stage of the Meeting with the support of global business leaders.
The campaign is supported by several global business leaders and partners, including Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and Chairman of The Valuable 500, Virgin Founder Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Media Chief Operating Officer Jeff Dodds, Bloomberg Chairman Peter Grauer, EY Global Chairman & CEO Carmine di Sibio, the Poses Foundation, and strategic partners Omnicom and Virgin Media.
