One of the oldest adages in marketing is that word of mouth is the most effective way of communicating with your customers.

For almost two decades, marketers have been trying to win the online search battle on a daily basis.

Like Christmas for retailers, and the Super Bowl for brands, the federal election is a date set in time that provides an immovable deadline for marketers.

The question for many boards and CEOs is whether this heavy reliance on social media is the optimal use of their marketing budgets.

A generation ago marketers wanted to work only on leadership brands. There was an inherent pride in working with and learning from the best, from the market leader.

Somewhere between one-to-one marketing and mass marketing, there’s a strategy which is slowly being lost.

A KPMG report last year found that “trust has declined in almost every major economy and many developing ones”.