Michael Zakkour is the Founder and Managing Director of 5 New Digital, a digital and retail consultancy focused on helping startups to Fortune 100 brands develop successful eCommerce and digital commerce strategies and shape their retail and consumer pathways. They work with companies in North America, Europe, and Asia and navigate growth opportunities through innovative solutions that drive revenue in their domestic and international operations.
As an acclaimed and sought-after professional speaker and lecturer, Michael is a regular guest on the BBC, CNN, NPR, and NBC. He has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, FORBES, WWD, MSNBC, NYSE TV, and countless other print, digital, web, and broadcast outlets. He is also an author, entrepreneur, and investor with more than 20 years of experience building successful businesses.
As digital marketplaces continue to expand, how can your brand prepare to engage with consumers on the next level? Consumers are demanding personalized experiences, which drives the need for brands to offer elite eCommerce shopping experiences. What if you could use practical applications of digital tools and technologies to build a luxury experience?
According to Michael Zakkour, there’s an opportunity for individual brands and large organizations to make the leap into the metaverse and use digital tools to become leaders. Innovative tools and the fusion between eCommerce and virtual space produces the perfect foundation for brands to associate themselves with these environments. Building a brand in this environment means giving consumers a new and elevated experience with how they shop, entertain, and consume information. How can you boost your brand performance across these emerging digital worlds? Today, Michael is here to share his advice and insights on the digital space.
In this episode of The Digital Deep Dive podcast, Aaron Conant sits down with Michael Zakkour, Founder and Managing Director of 5 New Digital, to talk about how brands are interacting with the metaverse and associating with NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Michael discusses the monetization and consumption of brands in the digital space, how brands and retailers are engaging and using NFTs, and rapidly growing your brand in the metaverse by educating consumers on the value of your brand.
BWG Connect provides executive strategy & networking sessions that help brands from any industry with their overall business planning and execution. We network and knowledge share together to better understand and adapt to the newest trends, strategies and pain points shaping growth in the digital space. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Strategy, has built an exclusive network of 125,000+ senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events on an annual basis.
In addition, we have had 1x1 conversations with over 5,000 brands and have a real-time pulse on what digital strategies are successful and why. This in-depth knowledge allows our team to operate on the cutting edge and provide our clients with best -in-class guidance on how to win in the digital world. We have provided free consultations and strategy sessions for companies of all sizes, start-up to Fortune -100, to enable growth, resolve issues and make curated service provider introductions that can impact your digital footprint.
We have held to the philosophy of providing high-level insights & actionable knowledge with no sales pitches in order to provide to our network the ability to listen, learn and act to improve themselves as well as their organizations. Our ultimate goal is to be the resource out there to help digital executives find the research they need to excel in the modern marketplace.
If you are interested in getting involved with any of our current or past events, you can find them here. If you are looking for help & would like to set up some time to chat with our team, you can schedule a time or reach out directly to aaron@bwgconnect.com or Tiffany@bwgconnect.com.
Michael Zakkour is the Founder and Managing Director of 5 New Digital, a digital and retail consultancy focused on helping startups to Fortune 100 brands develop successful eCommerce and digital commerce strategies and shape their retail and consumer pathways. They work with companies in North America, Europe, and Asia and navigate growth opportunities through innovative solutions that drive revenue in their domestic and international operations.
As an acclaimed and sought-after professional speaker and lecturer, Michael is a regular guest on the BBC, CNN, NPR, and NBC. He has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, FORBES, WWD, MSNBC, NYSE TV, and countless other print, digital, web, and broadcast outlets. He is also an author, entrepreneur, and investor with more than 20 years of experience building successful businesses.
How can businesses take advantage of the current opportunities presented by the digital age and adapt to the changing business landscape? If you are a company that wants to thrive in this challenging environment, you will want to discover new strategies that help keep you in step with all the developments at your doorstep.
As an investor, consultant, author, and entrepreneur, Michael Zakkour has valuable insights into how companies can thrive in the changing digital landscape. Building brand loyalty and increasing customer value mean implementing business strategies that leverage the digital landscape. Do you know if you should use a unified commerce versus an omnichannel strategy? There is a lot to consider. You can decrease customer acquisition costs while increasing the consumers’ lifetime value with the right strategy. Whether you're running a small business or managing a large company, Michael's expertise will help grow your business.
In this episode of The Digital Deep Dive podcast, Aaron Conant interviews Michael Zakkour, Founder and Managing Director of 5 New Digital, about how companies can thrive in a world where the digital age continuously shapes consumer behavior and demands. They talk about the approaches brands can use to adapt and boost revenue through a robust unified digital commerce approach, ways to decrease customer acquisition costs, how the retail renaissance affects brand strategies, and much more.
BWG Connect provides executive strategy & networking sessions that help brands from any industry with their overall business planning and execution. We network and knowledge share together to better understand and adapt to the newest trends, strategies and pain points shaping growth in the digital space. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Strategy, has built an exclusive network of 125,000+ senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events on an annual basis.
In addition, we have had 1x1 conversations with over 5,000 brands and have a real-time pulse on what digital strategies are successful and why. This in-depth knowledge allows our team to operate on the cutting edge and provide our clients with best -in-class guidance on how to win in the digital world. We have provided free consultations and strategy sessions for companies of all sizes, start-up to Fortune -100, to enable growth, resolve issues and make curated service provider introductions that can impact your digital footprint.
We have held to the philosophy of providing high-level insights & actionable knowledge with no sales pitches in order to provide to our network the ability to listen, learn and act to improve themselves as well as their organizations. Our ultimate goal is to be the resource out there to help digital executives find the research they need to excel in the modern marketplace.
If you are interested in getting involved with any of our current or past events, you can find them here. If you are looking for help & would like to set up some time to chat with our team, you can schedule a time or reach out directly to aaron@bwgconnect.com or Tiffany@bwgconnect.com.
Is your brand still reeling from last year’s supply chain issues, hiring challenges, and rising product costs? To help you eliminate these obstacles and achieve your goals in 2022, we’re reviewing valuable lessons from Q4 and taking note of the trends, updates, and opportunities that are on the horizon for the year ahead.
For brands across categories, 2021’s holiday season was dampened by ongoing inventory issues due to the pandemic. With worries about stock levels and shipping delays, consumers started their shopping earlier in the season — creating a rise in traffic on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Cost-Per-Click (CPC) shot up a whopping 38% during Thanksgiving for sponsored products, while ad spend declined on Cyber Monday for the first time ever.
So what does this mean for you? Ultimately, Q4 showed signs of optimism with consumer spending on the rise, but smaller brands still had to be savvy when budgeting for their sponsored product ads. If you want to break through all of the fierce competition on the Amazon marketplace and make the most of your advertising budget in 2022, it may be time to adjust your approach.
While many of the same obstacles from 2021 are predicted to persist in the new year — from supply chain issues to increasing advertising costs — there are some new and notable opportunities that eCommerce brands should be taking advantage of.
To start, Ben Ryan Schwartz from Pacvue suggests keeping your eye on shoppable video, which would allow clickable ads directly in your videos. He also notes the benefits of Amazon’s new and improved display capabilities — including updated audience targeting for Amazon DSP — and different fulfillment models, from brick-and-mortar to click-and-collect.
As Amazon and eCommerce advertising continues to evolve, the question remains: how do you leverage these updates and opportunities for your unique brand? According to Nicole Reich of Retail Bloom, the first step to determining how much to spend on advertising is to identify your strategy. Whether you want to drive awareness, expand your audience, or focus on profitability, there are different campaigns for each goal.
As Nicole says, to create winning (and on-budget) campaigns, you have to align your advertising budget and goals with your overall Amazon strategy and sales. She advises taking your approach to the next level by reviewing benchmarks in your category, understanding which campaigns and keywords connect with your goals, and maxing out the bottom of your funnel before moving up.
