Ciaran Norris
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About Ciaran Norris

Ciarán Norris is the Chief Digital Officer for Mindshare Australia, where he is responsible for the overall digital output of the agency, including ensuring that search, social, mobile and video are integrated into the broader marketing mix. Ciaran spent 7 years working in online publishing in the UK, and was then responsible for award winning campaigns as Head of Search & Social for London-based digital agency Altogether (now merged with ad-agency WCRS). He moved to media agency Mindshare in 2009, originally as the first Head of Social in their worldwide office in London, and then to the Dublin office as the Head of Digital at Mindshare Ireland. Ciarán is a regular speaker at events around the world, and has contributed to the likes of AdNews, B&T, econsultancy & AdAge.com.

Ciaran Norris's latest articles

Performance marketing

You Can’t Own What You Don’t Pay For (In Social Media)

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about ongoing changes that Facebook is making to its Newsfeed algorithms and how those tweaks impact brands. Notably, there was the release of a paper by PR agency Ogilvy discussing the notion of “Facebook Zero” and its potential implications, whilst food delivery start-up Eat24, in a more concrete and […]

Customer experience

What Does The WhatsApp Deal Mean For Brands?

Unless you’ve been hiding under the digital equivalent of a rock, or perhaps living in China, it’s almost certain that you’ve heard by now about Facebook buying mobile messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion. There has been a huge amount of discussion and speculation about why Facebook spent more than it cost to put men […]

Performance marketing

7 Things BuzzFeed Can Teach Brands About How To Be Social

Last week saw the official launch of social news behemoth BuzzFeed here in Australia. In typically BuzzFeed style, they celebrated their launch with headlines such as “17 Kangaroos That Can Kick Your Butt” and by giving out bags and badges plastered with equally tongue-in-cheek Aussie catchphrases and clichés. But you don’t build a business that now […]

Customer experience

Will Social Video Ads Change TV Advertising?

Much has been written about Facebook’s new video product, which is currently being tested by Summit Entertainment and Mindshare in the US. Much of the commentary has been around how much it will cost, whether it will affect users, data plans, and what its impact will be on Facebook’s future profitability. But one area that […]

Customer experience

Making Media Truly Social

What is social media? I know it’s a strange question considering the title of this column, but I think it’s one worth asking. Wikipedia, that great social encyclopedia, defines it as follows: Social media refers to the means of interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Now, this is […]

Performance marketing

The Value Of Social To TV

For many years, the main question one would hear from people who worked at the major digital publishers and platforms was, “How can we take budget from TV?” Meanwhile, network representatives would ask how they could ensure that they didn’t suffer the same fate as the newspaper companies. But now, increasingly, the questions on both […]

Connected TV and OTT

Will Hashtags Help Facebook In The Social TV War?

I’ve written a lot here about the intersection between social platforms and TV, and as these markets continue to evolve, there are still a lot of interesting things happening in both. A couple of things happened recently that probably highlight where social TV is heading, suggesting some of the things that marketers should be thinking […]

Performance marketing

Can Yahoo Go Native With Tumblr?

When Yahoo spent $1.1 billion to buy social blogging platform Tumblr, there was a huge amount of discussion around what it meant. Whilst only Marissa Mayer and the Yahoo board can be anywhere near certain why the deal was done, what is clear is that this is part of an interesting experiment to decide what […]

Performance marketing

All The News That’s Fit To Tweet

The last few years has seen the rise of what are known as “acqhires,” where start-ups are bought for their talent and tech, rather than the product itself. The most recent and impressive example of this was the decision by Yahoo! to pay a rumoured $30 million to buy Summly, an app with less than […]

Performance marketing

If (Not) This Then (What?)

The end of 2012 saw the start of something that is likely to take up a lot of time and column inches in 2013: the true start of the social platform wars. It’s what I dubbed “Anti-Social Media” in my 2012 wrap-up post, and it’s likely to get just as messy as the mobile platform […]

Performance marketing

5 Things Likely To Shape Social In 2013

As we approach the end of another year, it’s a good time to think about what we, as marketers, hope to achieve in the next 12 months. But to do so, we also need to think about the things that are likely to have an impact on our businesses, and the products and sites that […]

Performance marketing

The Battle For Data From Social TV

As you undoubtedly know by now, the 7th of November was an historic day. It was the day that saw an event which highlighted the changing world we live in, and the way that power is now channeled. I’m talking, of course, about the fact that within a few hours, a photo posted on Twitter […]

Performance marketing

5 Lessons From #London2012

The Olympic Games in London were, I think most people would agree, a pretty stunning success. From the amazing opening ceremony, to the record haul of medals for the home team, it all went brilliantly. It was also, according to many, the first social media Olympics and so, as we pack away the memories of […]

Performance marketing

Social And Mobile Bring Truly Personal Computing

It’s become rather fashionable in the last year or so to talk about the post-PC era, most notably after Steve Jobs did so back in 2010. I’ve certainly been guilty of it, including during a presentation where I used to it to describe the fact that more smart phones are now shipped globally than desktop computers (whether […]

Performance marketing

Facebook Should Keep Ignoring (Some) Advertisers

You probably heard already, but Facebook went public recently. Millions of inches of newsprint, and the digital equivalent, have already been written about what happened, but one thing that was mentioned time and time again, is that just prior to the IPO, General Motors decided to pull its ad spend from the social networking giant. […]

Performance marketing

Facebook Ads: The Message Is In The Media

Marshall McLuhan’s statement that “the medium is the message” must be one of the most over-used quotes of the last hundred years. I even used it (or misused it, depending on your opinion) as the title of a post last year. But because it’s such a flexible statement, which can be made to mean almost […]

Performance marketing

Consumers & Content Still Central In Social Media

Have you heard of Pinterest yet? There’s been plenty of buzz about it recently, and it’s even won an award. Why? Because its traffic figures are going “gang-busters” and so, obviously, according to the majority of tech blogs, it’s the “social media platform you have to get on board with in 2012.” Sound familiar? Well, last […]

Performance marketing

How Right Was I About Social Media In 2011?

The launch of Marketing Land dovetails nicely with the end of the year, a time when we’re all encouraged to reflect on the year that has just passed, and what life lessons we can learn from the previous 12 months. For tech bloggers and commentators, it means it’s time to make predictions for the coming […]

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