Brands need to be in the business of hope and community if they’re to truly foster trust with their customers in this new world of Covid-normal, says Salesforce’s global chief marketing officer.

Want to transform your company’s customer and digital technology stack? Then don’t scrimp on strategy, expect more costs than you originally anticipated, put data at the centre of investment and make sure robust governance frameworks are in place.

All the latest martech and adtech news from Salesforce, Optimizely, SugarCRM, Act-on Software, Zendesk, Oracle, Progress, Yotpo and Sendinblue.

More than three-quarters of digital marketers are finding customer expectations harder to meet than a year ago, according to the latest State of Marketing Report from customer relationship management (CRM) platform, Salesforce.

All the latest martech and adtech news from Salesforce, Cognigy, Nosto, Stackla, Smartsheet, Lotame, Amobee, SurveyMonkey and Toluna.

All the latest martech and adtech news from Fabulate, Salesforce, Sitecore, MediaMath, HootSuite, Admetrics, Springbot and Digivizer.

All the latest martech and adtech news this week from Salesforce, ServiceNow, Facebook, Frontify, Seismic, Verint, ShareThis and Gainsight

Salesforce will acquire messaging platform Slack for US$27.7 million. The sales and marketing cloud software platform has confirmed the acquisition, with the news it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy the messaging platform. Slack will become the new interface for Salesforce Customer 360.

All the latest martech and adtech news this week from Sprinklr, Pega, IAS, Oracle, CrossEngage and GPredictive, Salesforce, Seismic and HubSpot

Managing stakeholder expectations around the artificial intelligence (AI) journey, embracing an iterative approach and building internal capability are key lessons David Jones has learnt after transforming its customer service approach.

A physical mascot for customers in meetings, ruthless prioritisation, cross-functional teamwork and employee camaraderie are just a few ways Australian retail group, Super Retail Group, has ridden through the COVID-19 crisis.

The coronavirus pandemic is affecting everyone the world over, bringing unprecedented disruptions and challenges both to the way we work and the way we live. Marketers seeking new tools for navigating the changing operating environment will find many martech outfits have been quick to retool solutions to meet the coronavirus challenges.

Adobe, Sitecore, Acquia, Liferay and Episever have taken the lead for digital experience platforms, according to Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms report.

If there’s one lesson Luxury Escape’s chief customer officer, Jason Shugg, has learnt through the process of overhauling marketing, sales and service technology, it’s the importance of communication.

“If there are two sources of truth, there is no truth.” It’s a comment that screams common sense. Yet when you look at the state of the relationship between marketing and sales teams, it’s still not often the case, agrees Salesforce SVP and GM of Pardot, Michael Kostow.

Better claims and rehabilitation management, transparency and improved member experiences are all coming to fruition for Zurich’s OnePath life insurance business after adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Southwest Airlines has edged a step closer to a 360-degree view of the customer while also lifting employee engagement after deploying a new platform to improve customer service management.

Orthodontic and dental brand, Invisalign, has chalked up 35 per cent growth in Asia-Pacific, 13 per cent lift in the US and secured more than 30,000 consultations through a custom mobile-led concierge app after a digital marketing transformation.

Marketers need to work harder to provide customers with transparency and an ability to control their own data as part of their ethical – and not just legal – responsibility towards them, Salesforce global CMO, Stephanie Buscemi, believes.

Being a leader is not a matter of having your name up in lights, making speeches or corralling power at the top. It’s identifying the power in other people and unleashing it, former US president, Barack Obama, believes.

Knowing consumers intimately, leaning in to brand ‘superpowers’ and digital capability, and disrupting from within have helped digital beauty retailer, e.l.f, buck category sales decline and chalk up 13 percentage point growth this year.