Better known as “SXSW,” South by Southwest is one of the largest technology and innovation festivals in the world. Last month, Macarta delegates attended the event, and two presentations on the future use of technology stood out: Let’s delve into each one. MIT’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies The technology that placed first in Bramson-Boudreau’s list was…
Read More
How to Leverage AI for Paid Search
Marketers and advertisers know that AI has been heavily featured in the news. Typically, articles that highlight AI tools focus on the ability of the chatbots to provide thorough answers and expand on a simple question in great detail. There have also been discussions about AI replacing people. While we don’t agree with that, we…
Read MoreAn Accessible Website is Crucial for Your Business. Here’s Why.
If you’re wondering what accessibility means and how to get started making your website accessible, you’re in the right place. Let’s take a look at what it means to create an accessible website and provide some high-level tips on how to achieve it. Before getting started, we need to understand why accessibility matters, and how external factors…
Read MoreGoogle Strikes Policy & What You Need to Know
An email about Google’s new “Strikes” system for Google Ads showed up in all of our inboxes last month, and if you’re like us, your first reaction was probably to check your accounts to make sure it wasn’t impacting your campaigns. While this might have seemed like an unwelcome intrusion, the new Strikes system and…
Read MoreA Closer Look at the Headless CMS
WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore and other traditional content management systems (CMSs) have long been considered the industry standard of website development. Also referred to as monolithic, regular or coupled, they were created to more easily manage online elements like content, images, HTML and CSS. But as brands continue to expand their content infrastructures, they need a…
Read MoreHow to Navigate a Cookieless World
Are Cookies a thing of the past? If so, what does this mean for brands? How about their customers? Is this the end of targeting? From the marketing industry to state and federal governments, questions are swirling around data, tracking and privacy. The answers below will begin to help you navigate what could one day…
Read MoreHow Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform Improves Advertising
Amazon’s Demand-Side Platform (DSP) helps brands move shoppers down the funnel. More specifically, this unique advertising platform serves ads at the right moment based on specific, interest-based audience segmentation and bridges the gap between brand discovery and purchase. Amazon has rolled out a number of features to the Demand-Side Platform since its launch, perhaps the…
Read MoreIf You Ain’t First, You’re Last: How Your Website Speed Affects Your Bottom Line
In an age of lightning fast internet speeds, users expect content to be delivered in a fraction of a second. That includes your website. With an array of devices to consider, serving the right content can be tricky, but overlooking this crucial piece in the development of your website risks a loss in customers, user…
Read MoreDon’t Underestimate The Value of Voice for Your Business
It’s 2019 and nearly everyone has a built in assistant – voice assistant that is. Voice technology and its underlying software – voice recognition, artificial intelligence, natural language processing and beyond – is evolving rapidly and becoming omnipresent. With the rise of position zero, the coveted search result spot that voice assistants are pulling from,…
Read MoreBrands Embrace Virtual Reality as a Storytelling Tool for Their Content Marketing
As technology advances, the Jetsons-like future of self-driven cars, robot security guards, and smart devices is slowly becoming the norm. Virtual reality (VR), in particular, is no longer a distant pipe dream. While still new, a bit clunky, and expensive, it’s also emerging as a go-to tool for content marketing. As with any trend, brands…
Read MoreWhy Mobile-Friendly Websites Will Win In 2015
Introducing Google’s New Mobile Guidelines & Tools It’s no longer a surprise, we all know that online mobile usage is growing at the speed of light and quickly taking over desktop usage across industries. As a result, mobile search and mobile applications are the first touchpoints between users and brands. 2014 was already announced as…
Read More5 Digital Things We’re Thankful For
It’s Thanksgiving next week and we’re thinking about some things that we’re thankful for this year. In addition to being thankful for the opportunity to be creative on a daily basis and for our supportive friends and family members, we thought about some things that we’re very glad exist in digital.
Read MoreHivio: Bringing Buzz Back to Radio
Even with the advent of satellite and services like I Heart Radio and Pandora, radio is still struggling to be the American entertainment staple it once was. In fact, more than half of Americans feel radio brands fail when it comes to pushing fresh, interesting content, while 35% have no opinion whatsoever. So what’s a…
Read MorePRISM: A Closer Look at Tech’s Newest Controversy
Over the past few days, PRISM, a government surveillance program, has become a hot button issue within the tech community. After National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden executed “one of the largest leaks in US political history,” major tech industry players including Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo!, and Microsoft were accused of giving the federal government…
Read MoreHow to Avoid Getting Hacked
These days, it seems like every major brand is getting hacked by one activist group or another. Recently, satirical news site, The Onion, was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), who took over The Onion’s social media accounts. As The Onion explains in their blog, the compromise was the result of gullible Onion employees…
Read MoreWebinar Recap: Peter Shankman Says “Nice Brands Finish First”
In my experience, sometimes finding a good webinar can be a shot in the dark. They’re either not what they seem, or it’s a struggle to find good bits of info in the midst of thinly-veiled sales pitches. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the recent Vocus webinar, “Nice Brands Finish First,” featuring the always-entertaining Peter Shankman….
Read MoreMindgruve-Style Custom Forms with formIt
Here at Mindgruve, we do custom everything – and forms are no exception. Many times it can be difficult to choose a JavaScript or jQuery library and just go with it, especially one that will work for any project we take on. We needed something flexible, that we could style with as much CSS as…
Read MoreA Developer’s Top Web Pick
JacksonvilleArtwalk.com takes advantage of many of the web development techniques I have been using recently. The site originally caught my eye because it showcases how effective responsive web design and parallax can be together.
Read MoreOur 12 Favorite Digital Topics of 2012
Quick! Make a wish—it’s 12/12/12. Or is that for 11:11…? Whatever it is, we’re a bit superstitious and we want to take advantage of today’s date singularity and share with everyone our 12 favorite digital topics of 2012. Topics below are in no particular order.
Read MoreGame Mechanics and Gamification Reshapes Businesses
Game Mechanics and Gamification Reshapes Businesses/Companies have a growing need to provide an engaging experience for their customers, and incorporating Gamification techniques is becoming an increasingly better way to do that.
Read MoreMobile Advertising Part 2: Mobile Websites
Mobile Advertising Part 2: Mobile Websites/Welcome to the second half of our mobile advertising blog series!
Read MoreMobile Advertising Part 1: In-App Advertising
Mobile Advertising Part 1: In-App Advertising/Mobile advertising is becoming an integral part of advertising strategies due to the fact that it can conveniently reach consumers right in the palm of their hands.
Read MoreSmart TVs Extend Digital Reach, Value
Smart TVs Extend Digital Reach, Value/The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show has come and gone, leaving behind an array of consumer gadgets hopeful of becoming the next big thing…
Read MoreIn App Advertising: Reaching Target Demos in New Ways
App Advertising: Reaching Target Demos/Mobile apps have become a huge part of the new media industry
Read MorePing: Apple’s Newest Tool Has Missed Its Mark
Apple has recently announced its venture into the glut of social media networks on the internet – Ping. Ping is an iTunes-based community where users can list their favorite bands, follow some of their favorite artists and discover new artists through their friends. This new service was extremely popular at its inception, registering 1 million…
Read MoreDigital Barcodes: The Present and Future of Mobile Marketing
The past few years have seen many innovations in the world of mobile marketing, one of the biggest being the use of digital barcodes. Digital barcodes, or Quick Response codes, are barcodes that, when scanned using a mobile device’s QR code reader, lead users to promotional information designated by the creator. We believe digital barcodes…
Read More