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VIDEO: David Hasselhoff becomes the face of PlanetPlay’s green games initiative
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Acting legend David Hasselhoff has become the ‘first star of the month’ for not-for-profit PlanetPlay’s ever-growing Make Green Tuesday Moves (MGTM) initiative – which enables players to make a real-world impact in the fight against climate change.

Starting today, Tuesday July 2nd 2024, each participating game is launching specially created green items featuring The Hoff, which will be exclusive to the MGTM movement and remain live until the next monthly activation begins.

Proceeds from the sale of The Hoff’s content – which can comprise new and/or upcycled DLC goods such as characters, skins and items – will be invested into fully certified sustainability projects by PlanetPlay’s eco-donate platform.

The Hoff, star of global smash hit TV series’ Knight Rider and Baywatch, is proud to be MGTM’s first ‘Star of the Month’ from the world of entertainment, supported by a huge social media campaign, helping to inspire gamers all around the world to ‘Make Green Tuesday Moves’.

Among the games featuring The Hoff’s green DLC as part of July’s MGTM are Avakin Life (Lockwood Publishing), Bowling Club(Boombit), Car Driving School (Boombit), Cook & Merge (Supersolid), Crazy Defence Heroes (Animoca Brands), Darts Club (Boombit), Dawn Of Ages (Boombit), Fishing Clash (Ten Square Games), Hunt Royale (Boombit), Nitro Nation (CM Games), Peridot (Niantic), Piper Pets Cafe (Tripledot), Solitaire (Tripledot), Subway Surfers (SYBO), The Great Ocean (Actrio), Tile Dynasty (Tripledot), Top Drives (Hutch), Train Station 2 (Pixel Federation), Triple Title (Tripledot) and Wooduku (Tripledot).

Google is also supporting the innovative MGTM movement with a dedicated page on the GooglePlay app store, featuring an overview of the mission, a showcase of The Hoff’s videos, and all participating games from July 2-15 across all English-speaking territories.

These games collectively have over 36 million daily players, with games that have been played over 4 billion times.

All gamers need to do to get involved in MGTM is harness their #PassiveActivism, by continuing to play the games they love to contribute to amazing sustainability causes – all supported by The Hoff!

These sustainability causes include the Hongera Project, which helps families in Kenya improve their living conditions by manufacturing and distributing clean cookstoves, and the WAI Wanaka water conservation project in New Zealand.

David Hasselhoff said: “As someone who has spent years entertaining audiences around the world, I know the power of influence. Climate change isn’t just a distant threat; it’s here and now. By joining the Make Green Tuesday Moves initiative, we can turn our everyday gaming into a force for good. Let’s make every play for our planet. Together, we can create a legacy of sustainability for future generations. Stay cool, stay green, and make a difference!”

Jessica Jung, Product Manager for Peridot at Niantic, said: “We’re excited to partner with PlanetPlay for initiatives like Make Green Tuesday Moves. At the core of Niantic’s mission, we believe that we can leverage the power of gaming to help people get outdoors, healthier, and meet new people. It’s amazing when this mission can also work in tandem to make for a greener planet.”

Tamzin Taylor, Head of Google Play Partnerships, Western Europe, said: “PlanetPlay’s Make Green Tuesday Moves initiative is a fantastic example of how the games industry can leverage its massive reach to make a positive impact. We’re proud to support MGTM by featuring it on the Google Play store, making it easier for millions of gamers to get involved and play for the planet.”

Rhea Loucas, CEO at PlanetPlay, said: “The Make Green Tuesday Moves initiative embodies the incredible potential of the games community to drive meaningful change. With David Hasselhoff as our first ‘Star of the Month,’ we want to inspire millions of players to join our mission to help keep global warming below the 1.5 degree threshold. I also want to welcome all our new studio partners, who are integrating sustainability into their game experiences to empower players to contribute to real-world environmental solutions. We are thrilled to have The Hoff on board and can’t wait to see the impact this collaboration will achieve.”

Two-thirds of marketers experimenting with AI
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65% of marketers in the UK use AI within their experimentation approach, with almost half (45%) having adopted the technology within the past year.

That’s according to a new report from Optimizely, which reveals how marketers are implementing AI to level up their approach to A/B testing and experimentation.

The Tested to Perfection report, based on a study of 100 marketers and 1,000 consumers in the UK, examines the current state of experimentation practices, and how marketers are using, and planning to use, AI to address rapidly changing business and consumer expectations.

Nearly nine in 10 marketers (87%) believe experimentation is important for achieving their goals in 2024, yet one in five (20%) feel their current web experimentation approach is not effective. Nearly a quarter (23%) would go as far as to describe their current approach as ‘unsophisticated.’

When asked what has been preventing marketers from experimenting effectively, Optimizely’s report identifies several recurring themes.

Lack of budget is a challenge for almost half of marketers (43%), while a lack of resources, time and focus is also a barrier for 39% of respondents. Other challenges include a lack of effective tools or technology (25%), silos between relevant teams (25%), and the small scale of experiments (18%).

However, 89% of marketers believe AI will be the answer to overcoming these barriers.

Almost half (48%) of the marketers surveyed plan to use AI to create more targeted and personalised content in the future. Forty-one percent have their sights set on generating headlines, images and CTAs at scale. Over a third (37%) plan to use AI to dynamically allocate traffic between test variations. And three in 10 (32%) will turn to AI to create hypotheses for experiments.

Over two-thirds (70%) of marketers in the UK believe that AI will help make experimentation faster, and 62% believe AI will make experimentation more accurate.

ANALYTICS MONTH: Demystifying the maze to create the perfect customer journeys
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Marketers understand the power of data-driven decision making. Website analytics solutions and related services have become indispensable tools, providing invaluable insights into website traffic, user behaviour, and campaign performance. By leveraging these tools, digital marketers can optimise their online strategies, maximise ROI, and ultimately achieve their marketing goals…

The Power of Website Analytics:

  • Understanding Website Traffic: Analytics solutions provide detailed insights into website traffic sources (organic search, social media, paid advertising) and visitor demographics. This data empowers marketers to understand their target audience and tailor their messaging accordingly.
  • Analysing User Behaviour: Website analytics track user behaviour on a granular level, revealing how visitors navigate the website, what content resonates with them, and where potential conversion leaks exist. This allows marketers to identify areas for improvement and enhance the user experience.
  • Measuring Campaign Performance: Analytics platforms enable marketers to track the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, including website traffic generated, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI) for individual campaigns. This data allows for data-driven optimisation and budget allocation decisions.
  • A/B Testing and Optimisation: Website analytics tools facilitate A/B testing, allowing marketers to compare different versions of website elements (e.g., call-to-action buttons, product page layouts) and identify what resonates best with users. This data-driven approach ensures continuous website improvement and conversion rate optimisation.

The Evolving Landscape of Website Analytics:

As technology advances and user behaviour continues to shift, website analytics are likely to see some exciting developments:

  • Focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI-powered analytics solutions will become increasingly prevalent. Machine learning algorithms will offer predictive analytics, helping marketers anticipate user behaviour and personalise website experiences for individual visitors.
  • Integration with Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Enhanced integration between website analytics and CRM platforms will allow for a more holistic view of the customer journey. Marketers will be able to connect website behaviour with customer data, enabling targeted marketing campaigns and improved customer engagement.
  • Privacy-Focused Analytics: As data privacy regulations evolve, website analytics solutions will need to adapt.Focus will shift towards collecting first-party data with user consent and utilising privacy-preserving data analytics techniques.
  • Omnichannel Measurement and Attribution: Consumers today interact with brands across multiple channels.Analytics solutions will need to evolve to provide a comprehensive view of the customer journey across all touchpoints, enabling accurate attribution of conversions and campaign effectiveness.

Website analytics solutions have become the cornerstone of digital marketing success in the UK. By leveraging these tools and embracing innovative approaches, digital marketing professionals can gain valuable insights into user behaviour, optimise their online strategies, and ultimately achieve their marketing goals. As technology evolves and the focus on data privacy and user experience intensifies, we can expect website analytics to become even more sophisticated, empowering UK digital marketers to navigate the ever-changing online landscape and deliver exceptional results.

Are you searching for Analytics solutions for your organisation? The Digital Marketing Solutions Summit can help!

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash

IPA Bellwether reports UK digital ad budgets rise
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The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s (IPA) Bellwether reports marketeers have revised their budgets upwards in the first quarter of 2017, the highest level recorded in almost a decade.

Some 26.1 per cent of those companies polled remain positive about 2017/18 budgets, signalling growth for the coming year,  while 11.8 per cent of companies said that marketing budgets would increase during the first quarter of 2017.

32 per cent of those companies polled also reported improvement in the financial pipeline, compared to 19 per cent that predicted things would be worse during the quarter.

The IPA reported marketers on tighter budgets are seeing greater value from digital and positioning ad spend accordingly, mostly as a direct result of the unknown effects of Brexit negotiations and wider economic uncertainty.

However, despite a positive outlook for digital ad spends in 2017, the IPA predicts stagnation materialising in 2018, with marketers being advised by experts to proceed with caution.

Speaking about the report, the IPA’s director general Paul Bainsfair said: “The election result has thrown further uncertainty into an already volatile environment.

“It is inevitable that this has had a knock-on effect on UK. Specifically, for marketers this has meant a desire, where possible, to seek out more activation driven advertising. As evidenced strongly in this latest Bellwether Report, this has resulted in a further move towards advertising in the digital space.”