How new tech is improving brand-consumer communication
Information Inundation
The communications channel has changed completely within the last decade. Long gone are the days of “pay and spray” advertising where a fancy tagline was crafted and plastered on billboards, print ads and TV spots. This previous one-way channel has shifted to a two-way communications channel between consumer and brand, thanks to the advent of social media.
However, there’s been an adverse side effect to this new-found windfall of information, creating a Catch 22 – consumers are being overloaded with too many messages. The average person receives literally thousands of brand messages each day, resulting in brand fatigue. While our access to and ability to share information is more open than ever, our attention span is shorter than ever. Digital Natives switch between screens 27 times an hour.
Fortunately, in every challenge is an opportunity. By understanding emerging technology and collecting the ever-growing amount of data, relevant, timely messaging can be tailored, allowing you to cut through the noise.
Mo(re)bile
It never leaves our side. It goes with us everywhere. It’s no news that at the centre of everything is the smartphone. But here are a few figures to put it all into perspective:
– There are 70 billion apps available, equating to 10 apps to account for everyone on the face of the earth.
– 18.7% of global Internet consumption is accessed through smartphone, and that number will only trend upward as the smartphone is the gateway to information in emerging marketers.
– Over 80 per cent of consumers will take part in mCommerce in the coming year and even when our phones are not at the point of purchase, they’re nearly always a part of the buying journey.
The smartphone is also shaping our data consumption habits. The average consumer spends 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on his/her smartphone, equating to 20% of daily total media consumption.
Among the vast amounts of content consumed on smartphones, mobile video consumption is seeing the sharpest rise. Mobile video traffic will grow 14 times by 2018, accounting for 69% of global mobile data traffic.
New consumption habits have led to larger screens on our smartphones. Even the ever-stubborn Apple has finally succumbed to these new trends with their latest iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
These new larger screens will provide advertisers with even more options to communicate with users, especially with rich media and video offerings.
A connected world and connected self
In the not-so-distant future, the smartphone will become an even bigger centrepiece to our lives as we begin to bring the offline world online via the Internet of Things (IoT).
Not only will the likes of our thermostats, devices and automobiles become all connected, but so will ourselves. With technologies such as Nest and Apple’s HealthKit, we’ll be able to measure everything from appliances energy consumption to our own body’s energy consumption. Within this new quantified world, will be a trial of data that will have marketers salivating. With this data, we’ll be able to know the wants and needs of consumers possibly even before they know.
Ben Kunz, vice president at Media Associates, said it best when he quipped: “Google will know that you are hungry for sushi before you do.”
An important thing to keep tabs on is who will own what data. This will of course make or break the targeting functions marketers will have. With the mass amounts of free-flowing information and new technologies, privacy and data protection has become a hot-button topic for brands and consumers alike.
Data activation
It’s great that there are heaps and heaps of data to work with, but one of the biggest challenges of today’s marketers is what to do with the data. One of the best and most effective ways to segment and activate data is through programmatic marketing.
Using a number of parameters such as revenue management data, customer relationship management data, third-party data and behavioral data, information is fed into a programmatic-marketing platform, and that data is then activated into tangible advertising campaigns that can target the right user with the right product through every touch point along the purchasing cycle.
A true win-win situation can be had by linking the supply of your business with the needs of your customers. Take, for instance, an airline. Looking at customer loyalty data, you can see that a customer often flies between London and New York – maybe you even know their preferred seat.
It just so happens that there is a flight departing from London to New York, which is in danger of not reaching load capacity. You can then target that customer with a special offer for this flight, which includes his/her typical window seat.
We live in a time that is both chalked full of distractions and opportunities when it comes to communications. To ensure success within today’s communication channel, it’s imperative to be relevant and personal. The best way to do this is through data mining and activation.
Joseph Vito DeLuca is head of marketing at Yieldr.