'Utterly baffling': Merkle EMEA's Laura Collins, Director of Paid Social, shares her thoughts on what Lush's move to ditch social media could mean

Merkle EMEA's Liz Rutgersson, SVP, Head of Media Planning, comments on a report by eMarketer published this week which suggests that Facebook and Google's dominance of the UK digital advertising market has continued to increase, with a forecasted share of 63.4% compared to 62.7% last year.

Whilst ‘big data’, ‘GDPR’ and ‘personalisation’ are now part of the common lexicon, a significant proportion of companies are still hesitant at adopting agile processes when it comes to managing their data.

Q3 UK adspend for 2018 rose 5.1% year-on-year to reach £5.6bn - the 21st consecutive quarter of growth, according to Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report data. Here, industry bosses share their views on the findings.

Today’s consumer is both hyper-connected and increasingly wary of sharing their data with brands. Indeed, a recent YouGov survey found that most UK consumers can’t get through dinner without checking their phone, whilst the latest IPA TouchPoints survey revealed that 53% of the UK population agree that these days they tend to trust companies less.

Richard Lees of Merkle EMEA shares how brands can move towards being personal, not just personalised in his recent article in WARC. Learn best approaches for your sector, & key steps to People-based Marketing.

In a digitised world, relationships are becoming increasingly fragile. Merkle EMEA's Tom Byrne, asks whether the relationships modern marketers are building with consumers are much different, arguing that it’s only a mind-set shift, not an ad stack addition that can create relationships with long-term value.

Why is engaging with customers through digital marketing comparable to online dating? Writing exclusively for ExchangeWire, Tom Byrne, SVP agency services, Merkle EMEA, explains that it’s all about meaningful relationships. Today’s always-on digital world has affected our lives in a multitude of ways. One of which is how we find love.