The Report Finds that 63% of Consumers Lack Trust in Social Media Advertising, Signaling a Greater Opportunity to Double Down on Proven Communication Channels

Marigold, a global martech leader focused on delivering relationship marketing solutions that help brands and organizations acquire, grow and retain customers, announced the release of the 2024 Marigold Global Consumer Trends Index Report, which offers valuable insights into relationship marketing for the year ahead. Based on surveys conducted by Econsultancy across nearly 10,400 consumers worldwide, the report examines consumer attitudes and generational differences in personalization, privacy, messaging, advertising and brand loyalty.

Today’s marketers continue to face challenges on multiple fronts, including building customer trust, delivering value, navigating economic uncertainty, all while balancing data privacy and personalization as third-party cookies crumble. The 2024 Marigold Global Consumer Trends Index Report provides insights into consumer preferences that drive marketing decisions and explores the influence of brand relationships. In this year’s report, consumers indicated that they value relationship marketing strategies, personalization and loyalty programs, while third-party tracking tools and social media advertisements continued to rank among the most unpopular.

“Consumers reward brands they love with a larger share of their wallet and repeat business. The 2024 Marigold Global Consumer Trends Index Report shows that brands earn that love by delivering personalized interactions, in the moments that matter, and demonstrating that they really know their customers,” said Wendy Werve, CMO of Marigold. “In addition to underscoring that email continues to be a critical marketing channel for building loyal customers, this year’s report provides actionable insights that can help brands turn their customers into superfans for the long term.”

Heading into 2024, savvy brands can harness these top report takeaways to build better campaigns:

• Email Tops Marketing Channels in Purchase Frequency
  Email is the most popular marketing channel when it comes to consumer purchases, with half of consumers surveyed stating they have purchased an email offer in the last year, surpassing social media ads (48%), social posts (43%), SMS/MMS messages (24%) and banner advertisements (21%).

• Convenience and Quality Outrank Economic Concerns
  Despite half of consumers reporting economic pessimism, 59% consider convenience more important than price when making purchase decisions, while 69% place greater emphasis on product and service quality.

• Personalization and Relationship-Building Matter
  An overwhelming majority of consumers say their favorite brand treats them like an individual (85%), and strives to develop a relationship with them (82%).

• Non-Monetary Messages Resonate Better with Younger Consumers
  Roughly two-thirds of Gen Z (64%) and Millennial consumers (66%) cite they’re likely to engage with messages about brand purpose-related activities, compared to 46% of Baby Boomers. Younger consumers also find more value in community and unlocking exclusive content than older consumers.

• Brand Loyalty Proves Immensely Valuable
  63% of consumers will pay more to shop with the brands they’re loyal to. Brands need to satisfy consumers' desires in key areas like customer service/support and data privacy to maintain this loyalty.

• Consumers Lean Into Loyalty Programs
  This year, compared to last, 43% of consumers will be relying more often on loyalty program benefits before making purchases. Overall participation is also up with 39% of consumers more likely to engage with a loyalty program this year, vs. just 8% who reported being less likely to engage.

• Creating Value Exchange Remains Key
  When it comes to sharing their data in exchange for something, a majority of consumers find value in discounts/coupons (91%), loyalty points/rewards (89%), early/exclusive access to offers (83%), a chance to win something (81%), unlocking content (60%) and brand community (55%).

• Social Media Pessimism Signals Concerns
  Notably, 63% of consumers don’t trust the advertising they see on social media and 55% of consumers are engaging with social media less for the sake of their mental health.

"Loyalty is an all-encompassing strategy, not simply a product. This report underscores the significance of messaging-driven loyalty and trust-building through personalization in every interaction. Brands must go beyond generic incentives to establish meaningful relationships with savvy consumers who have become frustrated with irrelevant content and offers," stated Werve.

• Email security risks remain high with 94% of organizations experiencing incidents in the past 12 months. 

• 96% of organizations that experienced phishing attacks were negatively impacted, up from 86% last year. 

• Most cybersecurity leaders are stressed about email security, and 61% are kept awake at night by the use of AI in phishing. 

• Alarmingly, data loss and exfiltration incidents were experienced by 91% of respondents. 

  Leading cybersecurity company Egress today releases its second Email Security Risk Report. The report lays bare the attitudes and approaches to email security, the evolution of risks, and the impact of incidents. In the 2024 Email Security Risk Report, alongside expert commentary, a comparison of 2023’s results offers insight into how 500 Cybersecurity leaders view the threat landscape, including how they remain vulnerable to both inbound phishing attacks and outbound data loss and exfiltration, and how they continue to question the effectiveness of traditional approaches to email security. The report contains new data on phishing attacks, data loss prevention, and concerns about technical defenses’ ability to detect and prevent advanced threats within Microsoft 365 environments. Jack Chapman, VP of Threat Intelligence at Egress, comments: “The 2024 Email Security Risk Report is an essential read for all cybersecurity professionals and ultimately a tool to help teams assess their inbound and outbound defenses.  
  “What has been staggering is the emergence of trends alongside the 2023 edition of the Email Security Risk Report; for example, 94% of respondents fell victim to phishing attacks, up 2% from the previous year. Organizations continue to face vulnerabilities when it comes to advanced phishing attacks, human error, and data exfiltration, and analyzing emerging trends will be key to bolstering defenses. “The report also highlights how Cybersecurity leaders know that they’re vulnerable when it comes to phishing attacks. 58% of organizations have experienced account takeover incidents in the last 12 months, and 79% of these started with a phishing email that harvested an employee’s credentials, so it’s no wonder that phishing attacks and compromised accounts are causing concern for our Cybersecurity leaders.“The use of AI by cybercriminals is also at the front of our leaders’ minds, and rightly so. While it’s currently impossible to actually prove chatbots are being used to create phishing attacks, cybercriminals generally take every advantage they can get. Organizations can’t afford to be left behind but must ensure their defenses keep pace with cybercriminals’ methodology and the resulting attacks. “The stats in this latest report are truly staggering; 94% of companies have experienced security incidents in the last 12 months, and 95% of cybersecurity leaders are stressed about email security. Organizations urgently need to adapt their approach, or risk finding themselves in the same position next year.”Email Security Risk Remains High The Egress Email Security Risk Report 2024 has revealed that 94% of respondents fell victim to phishing attacks, up 2% from the previous year. Inbound email incidents primarily took the form of malicious URLs, attacks sent from a compromised account, and malware or ransomware attachments.
    
  Looking towards outbound email incidents, 91% of organizations experienced data loss and exfiltration due to reckless behavior to ‘get the job done’, human error or malicious exfiltration amongst other contributing factors.  
  • 94% of organizations were victims of phishing attacks 
  • 96% of organizations were negatively impacted by phishing attacks 
  • 94% of organizations were negatively impacted by outbound email security incidents 
  • 79% of organizations were victims of account takeover attacks which started with a phishing email 
  • 61% of cybersecurity leaders say the use of chatbots in phishing keeps them awake at night 
  Employees face the consequences for email security incidents The impact of an email security incident can be severe for employees and their organizations. 96% of surveyed organizations experienced negative impacts from phishing attacks, which is a jump of 10% versus last year’s report (when the number sat at 86%). Findings from the Email Security Risk Report show that leaders are taking a tough stance with employees caught by phishing attacks with negative outcomes for the people involved happening in 74% of companies. In particular, the report revealed the way organizations responded, with: 
  • 51% of employees caught in phishing attacks disciplined 
  • 39% of employees caught in phishing attacks fired 
  • 27% of employees caught in phishing attacks voluntarily leaving their roles 
  Looking at outbound threats, a similar picture is seen with 94% of the surveyed organizations reported being adversely affected, which is an increase of 8% from last year’s report. In outbound email incidents, 67% of people were disciplined, let go, or chose to leave the organization. Employees being disciplined was the most common outcome, seen in 51% of organizations. It is evident from the report’s data that email security incidents continue to have far-reaching impacts for organizations, with financial loss from customer churn and reputational damage topping the organizational costs in both inbound and outbound incidents. Organizations should provide the right technology to their teams to detect advanced threats and SAT programs that genuinely increases their understanding of real threats going forwards.AI is a growing concern for cyber riskAI continues to be one of the industry's biggest talking points, and our Cybersecurity leaders are savvy to the effect new tools, large language models, and generative AI could have on phishing attacks. 63% are being kept awake at night by deepfakes, and 61% by AI chatbots being utilized to create efficient phishing campaigns. This trend is expected to continue into 2024 and beyond, with organizations being encouraged to continuously review their defences.Through stolen Microsoft credentials threat actors can gain access to the kingdom Microsoft credentials are synonymous with being ‘the keys to the kingdom’, giving cybercriminals the power to move laterally across systems and networks to exfiltrate data and access email accounts to target customers and suppliers with further attacks.Findings from the report show that account takeover attacks (ATOs) are a significant concern for Cybersecurity leaders as 58% of organizations experienced account takeover incidents. Of these: 
  • 79% began with a phishing email harvesting an employee's credentials 
  • 83% saw multi-factor authentication bypassed before proceeding with the account takeover 
  Additionally, over half (51%) of organizations fell victim to phishing attacks sent from compromised accounts within their supply chain in the last 12 months. Utilizing a trusted domain helps enable attacks to get through traditional perimeter defenses and people are less suspicious of emails sent from addresses they recognize. Cybersecurity leaders are well-aware of their vulnerability, with supply chain compromise and ATO their top sources of stress.  Cybersecurity leaders question the value of their SEGs Many of the email security features Microsoft 365 offers overlap with the functionality available in SEGs, leaving organization to question their tech stack. Of those who use a SEG, 91% expressed frustration with it, and 87% are considering replacing their SEG or have already done so. As organizations adopt native controls in favor of SEGs, they are still left vulnerable to the advanced phishing attacks that can bypass signature-based and reputation-based detection, as well as employees’ behaviors that lead to outbound incidents, such as human error. 
  Combining Microsoft's controls and integrated cloud email security (ICES) solutions covers the full spectrum of inbound and outbound email security incidents, so it's little surprise that a large portion of organizations are weighing up their options. Training is considered a checkbox requirement According to the findings from the report, email security risks remain a top concern for organizations with 94% having experienced security incidents over the past year. Despite this, according to the majority of respondents, training is provided only to meet compliance requirements with 88% acknowledging that they are doing SAT for compliance purposes.  
  If training is engaging, in bite-size modules and relevant to the employee’s tasks, it should be an enriching activity with real-time teachable moments throughout their workday, but Cybersecurity leaders are currently worried that employees skip through training as quickly as possible and that they find training annoying. 
  With this in mind, it is no wonder that 91% of Cybersecurity leaders have doubts about the effectiveness of traditional training, and making the training tailored to teams or individuals isn’t being offered commonly: 
  • Only 19% of organizations deliver SAT that reflects on the department or team that employees work in 
  • Just 9% of organizations tailor training to the individual employee. 
  The ramifications of this are significant for both employees and their organizations as quality learning can turn a company’s biggest risk into one of their strongest defences – their people.

Cybersecurity veteran Marc van Zadelhoff will lead as new CEO; Co-Founder and CEO Peter Bauer continues on Mimecast’s Board of Directors

Mimecast Limited (Mimecast), an advanced email and collaboration security company, announced today the appointment of Marc van Zadelhoff as CEO, with Mimecast Co-Founder and current CEO Peter Bauer remaining a key collaborator as a member of the Board. Bauer, a key Mimecast shareholder, will continue to be an active advisor to Marc and the company.

“I’ve loved leading Mimecast from our founding in 2003 to our current position as a globally recognized, award-winning cybersecurity company. After an amazing and busy 21 years I am looking forward to pursuing my personal interests in addressing climate-change, environmental and social justice, and supporting young entrepreneurs. I am pleased to pass the leadership torch to Marc, whom I’ve known and respected for almost a decade and look forward to the company’s continued success under his leadership,” said Bauer.

Marc van Zadelhoff joins the company with nearly 25 years in the cybersecurity space, leading a range of organizations, most notably as CEO of Devo, a cloud-native security analytics company, COO at LogMeIn, and as one of the founders of IBM Security – serving as GM / CEO of the $2.5B, 8,000-person business unit he helped found. Marc brings a unique perspective to the company, with an emphasis on creating customer value and operational excellence.

"I’m drawn to Mimecast because it protects against today’s most urgent cybersecurity threats, namely: employees collaborating in an ever more dangerous world. Peter and the team have masterfully positioned Mimecast to help solve the problem of human risk. Joining now is super exciting to me. Mimecast has strong momentum, a world-class leadership team and a proven track record of delivering innovative solutions. In the coming months I will be meeting with customers and partners, getting to know Mimecast employees, and ensuring that we continue to deliver on our promise,” said Van Zadelhoff.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, we thank Peter for his exceptional leadership and impact to Mimecast, navigating it from a venture-backed start-up to a cloud leader in the email and collaboration cybersecurity market,” said Michail Zekkos, Board Chair. “We couldn’t be more delighted to welcome Marc as Mimecast’s new CEO to lead the company forward in this exciting product innovation journey centered around its customers, channel partners and employees. Mimecast has never been stronger and better positioned to benefit from Marc’s long and successful cybersecurity-centered track-record.”

Marc will start his role as CEO on Monday, January 22^nd.

GroupBy Inc., a SaaS-based eCommerce search and product discovery leader, is thrilled to announce the successful implementation of the GroupBy AI Search & Discovery Shopify app with Blue Zone Planet. This application will allow Blue Zone Planet to create the most relevant search experience for their shoppers by tapping into revolutionary AI-first technology that maximizes sales and revenue.

Blue Zone Planet was looking for a Shopify-friendly solution that leverages AI to understand what customers are searching for, returns the best and most relevant product results, and improves cart conversions. Their feedback on the overall experience with the app installation and set-up was that it was swift and easy and that the responsiveness of the support team for additional questions and tips was extremely helpful. In the short time since the GroupBy AI Search and Discovery app has been launched on their site, Blue Zone Planet has seen improved search relevance and faster results.

By installing the GroupBy app, Shopify merchants like Blue Zone Planet gain access to a next-gen eCommerce search technology for modern shoppers that is powered by Google Cloud Discovery AI - delivering Google-quality search results on their store in the fewest clicks possible. The app's ability to strike an ideal balance between AI-led optimization and manual control significantly saves time on configuring and tuning search rules, but most of all increases conversions and site-wide metrics. The merchandising capabilities allow merchants to easily configure the shopper experience through a dynamic merchandising platform, monitor long-term trends, and leverage actionable insights to grow. Shopify retailers can now gain access to the most modern and revolutionary search experience with a 30-day free trial of the GroupBy AI Search & Discovery App to experience search - like never before.

“Our Shopify app allows merchants to leverage the power of true AI and for the first time ever provide Google-quality search results to their shoppers,” says Roland Gossage, CEO of GroupBy. “We’re excited to have Blue Zone Planet using the app and are encouraged by the response we have received to date. We’re looking forward to watching their eCommerce site scale as they lead the way with next-generation search technology on the Shopify eCommerce platform.”

ketteQ today announced that its supply chain planning platform is now fully integrated with Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, giving sales and operations teams a powerful solution to improve customer forecasting and demand planning, while also providing a more complete understanding of the supply chain. With this integration, manufacturers can now drive more predictable and accurate business performance, better meet commitments, and improve customer satisfaction.

Revenue Lifecycle Management solutions leader helps life sciences organizations improve operational efficiency and patient outcomes

• New BCG Survey of More Than 1,400 C-Suite Executives in 50 Markets Reveals that 66% of Leaders Are Ambivalent or Dissatisfied with the Progress Their Companies Have Made

• Winning Companies Are Upskilling, But that Percentage Is Still Only 6%

• Big Gaps Between Winners and Observers Are Already Emerging, With Organizations that Plan to Invest More than $50 Million into AI and GenAI this Year 1.3 Times More Likely to See Cost Savings in 2024

Generative AI (GenAI) exploded into the public consciousness in 2023, promising to transform the way business functions. Despite the potential, however, leaders are struggling to convert hype into reality. According to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 66% of executives are ambivalent or outright dissatisfied with their organization's progress on AI and GenAI so far, citing three primary reasons for their dissatisfaction: a lack of talent and skills (62%), an unclear AI and GenAI roadmap and investment priorities (47%), and absence of strategy regarding responsible AI and GenAI (42%).

"This is the year to turn GenAI's promise into tangible business success," said Christoph Schweizer, BCG's CEO. "Almost every CEO, myself included, has experienced a steep learning curve with GenAI. When technology is changing so quickly, it can be tempting to wait and see where things land. But with GenAI, the early winners are experimenting, learning, and building at scale."

The report, titled BCG AI Radar: From Potential to Profit with GenAI, is based on a survey of 1,406 C-level executives in 50 markets and 14 industries. Seventy-one percent of executives surveyed say they plan to increase tech investments in 2024—an 11-point jump from 2023—and even more (85%) plan to increase their spending on AI and GenAI. Fifty-four percent of leaders already expect AI to provide cost savings this year, primarily through productivity gains in operations, customer service, and IT.

"Generative AI is radically reshaping businesses. Leading companies on the GenAI front are planning to realize up to $1 billion in productivity gains, and they are already looking at ways to reinvest into new business models and growth," said Sylvain Duranton, global leader of BCG X and a coauthor of the research. "This is a second chance for companies who missed the first AI wave."

This Is Not the Time to Wait and See

Although a small percentage of companies are already reaping the rewards of AI and GenAI, others are either playing catch up or standing on the sidelines. More than 60% of executives surveyed say their firms are still waiting to see how AI-specific regulations develop, and just 6% of companies have trained more than 25% of their people on GenAI tools so far.

According to the report, "winning" companies acknowledge GenAI's permanence and recognize its potential for both enhanced productivity and topline growth. It outlines several characteristics that set the winners apart from observers, including:

• Winners invest for productivity and top-line growth. Organizations that plan to invest more than $50 million in AI and GenAI this year are 1.3 times more likely to see cost savings in 2024—and 1.5 times more likely to achieve more than 10% in cost savings.
• Winners are systematically upskilling. Twenty-one percent of organizations spending upward of $50 million on AI and GenAI this year have already trained more than a quarter of their people.
• Winners are vigilant about GenAI cost of use. Cost of use, which has serious long-term implications, is not commanding the attention it should. Only 19% of those surveyed consider cost the top concern when choosing an AI and GenAI solution.
• Winners build intentional relationships. Only 3% of executives consider preexisting partnerships a priority when looking for AI solutions.
• Winners implement responsible AI (RAI) principles. Of the companies surveyed that are investing more than $50 million in AI in 2024, 27% put the CEO in charge of their RAI strategy (versus 14% overall).

"To unlock GenAI's full potential, executives should deploy it to improve efficiency of everyday tasks, reshape critical functions, and invent new business models," said Schweizer. "Doing so can increase productivity by up to 20%, enhance efficiency and effectiveness by up to 50%, boost revenue, and create long-term competitive advantage."

Enhanced capabilities enable sales and marketing teams to improve trade show performance and ROI through automated appointment scheduling and universal lead capture

Cvent, an industry-leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, today announced that it has acquired Jifflenow, a leading B2B 1:1 and group appointments scheduling solution and iCapture, an award-winning lead capture solution. As in-person events have returned as a critical channel for driving growth, hundreds of global organizations rely on Jifflenow to schedule and manage high-quality B2B appointments and iCapture for their trade show and conference lead capture needs.

With these acquisitions, Cvent further expands its Event Marketing and Management platform, offering enhanced solutions to help organizations:

• Maximize trade show impact by facilitating meetings and appointments with the highest-value customers and prospects: Trade shows are a large and growing category of marketing program spend, offering unique opportunities for sales and marketing teams to reach and engage new audiences and connect with their prospects and customers face-to-face. However, organizing, managing and tracking onsite appointments – through multiple systems and manual processes like email, calendar holds and spreadsheets – leads to wasted time and lost opportunities. With the addition of Jifflenow’s technology, Cvent gives organizations an easy way to ensure executives and sales teams are maximizing their time on the trade show floor by meeting with the most important customers and prospects. In addition, these new capabilities not only maximize the number of important appointments that are held, but also enable previously offline conversations to be tracked and actioned after the event ends.
• Increase the number of event leads: Trade shows are a vital part of an organization’s brand awareness and lead generation strategy. By acquiring iCapture, Cvent now helps organizations get more out of every trade show with a consistent, customizable and easy-to-use universal lead capture solution. By eliminating fragmented, unreliable lead capture tools that have to be re-learned from show to show, organizations can boost lead volume with a standardized system that meets their unique lead capture needs.

• Better qualify and convert trade show leads: 74% of marketers⁽¹⁾ say events are their most important demand generation tactic, and with its highly configurable qualification questions and robust CRM integrations, iCapture facilitates more intelligent and efficient lead capture onsite. In addition, Jifflenow simplifies the process of booking qualified appointments at the event to convert these leads into business opportunities. This powerful combination streamlines post-event follow-up and enables sales and marketing professionals to easily capture, qualify and convert their leads with greater speed, consistency and visibility.

“The Jifflenow team is excited to continue its mission to transform meeting automation as an integral part of Cvent, a clear leader that continues to transform the meetings and events industry,” said Hari Shetty, CEO and Founder of Jifflenow. “Last year, we unveiled an expanded partnership and integration with Cvent, and today’s announcement is an exciting evolution of our relationship. It takes a highly committed team to reach the level of success that we have achieved, and we’re excited to leverage Cvent’s global scale, research and development resources and robust partner ecosystem to continue to innovate to help organizations capitalize on their trade shows and conferences.”

“Trade shows and conferences offer some of the highest quality engagements sales teams will encounter, and iCapture was founded nearly 12 years ago with a single goal in mind: helping organizations capture those engagements and turn them into revenue-generating opportunities,” said Brady Roberts, President and Co-Founder of iCapture. “With organizations investing more in trade shows to reconnect with customers and prospects, now’s a great time to join the Cvent team and add our best-in-class solutions to their platform.”

“Over the past nearly 25 years, we’ve helped power global meetings and events programs, and these acquisitions highlight our continued commitment to innovation and delivering the best-in-class solutions our customers need to drive their businesses forward,” said Reggie Aggarwal, CEO and Founder of Cvent. “We’ve known and respected Hari and Brady since the inception of both Jifflenow and iCapture, and we are extremely excited to welcome their teams to Cvent.”

Cvent’s enhanced trade show and conference solutions will be featured prominently at the Company’s user and industry conference, Cvent CONNECT 2024, to be held June 10-13 in San Antonio, Texas.