The Big Bets
- Technology Converges
- Data Actually Becomes Real-Time
- It's the Year of Mobile Again
- Content Is Everyone's New Favourite Product
- Digital Gets Creative
Before we get into my personal opinion on the industry's big bets it's important to see where we are and more importantly to understand where we have come from.
Australians spend more time online than with any other media—that's over 24 hours of internet consumption every single week, and half of that is spent on a mobile device. Mobile internet browsing has really only been around for the past 4 years at best.
Internet.org recently published their first whitepaper on the penetration of the internet globally, recording that only just under 40% of the world is online. These are pinch-worthy statistics. As an industry we need to remember how far we have come and just how many we have left behind.
The developed world has moved on from the days where pricing power resided with manufacturers and retailers, where we had minimum and uneven levels of products and services with a fragmented or non-existent distribution infrastructure. Manufacturers had a lack of national communications and infrastructure therefore advertising and marketing of any type was sporadic, infrequent and ineffective.
The economy and retailing shifted from being production-driven and chasing demand to marketing driven and demand-creating by the 1950s. Migration from rural areas to cities created the idea of mass markets and thus mass marketing, driven by the launch of TV, national broadcast and print media.
Honesty and purity of communication became vital
The consumer now has total power as the globe responded to an enormous power shift from producers to consumers. Growth in supply in the early noughties had begun to outpace demand as in direct-mail, e-commerce and TV retailing took off exponentially.
As marketers we began to respond to a major push in use of technology to increase back-end efficiency with the rise of mass merchants and online retail such as eBay and Walmart, which expanded to be the biggest global retailer reaching $400 billion in sales by 2010.
The democratisation of data has driven a step change in services
- From needing 'stuff' to demanding experiences
- From globalization to personalisation
- Brand collaboration and seamless experiences
- From wanting new to demanding new and NOW
The democratization of creative, new production techniques and delivery systems will eventually lead to the growth of bespoke products combined with predictive retailing, where brands tailor products to customers based on the information they have on that audience. This will see the data revolution take generation Z on a whole new journey of retailing.
Technology is converging
Clients and agencies are now choosing technology with a greater focus on 'stackability'. Data agencies are now adding demand side platforms on top of their rich data, encouraging technology to race to the finish for the most integrated and data complex product. Clients and marketers are beginning to see the benefit in not having eggs in multiple baskets, as for every data patch needed in the science of statistics leads to a magnified unreliability of the data set.
Secondly, there is a huge amount of pressure on clients and agencies to reduce budgets as the workload ultimately is getting more intense, as digital moves away from being a skill into a craft. A reduction in technology costs through consolidation is on top of the agenda.
Data actually becomes real-time
Imagine that—data actually becoming real time, with pre-defined rules making decisions on data within the second. This is a very exciting space to watch as we move away from the days of post campaign analysis. As an industry we are moving on mass into action based decision making using live, performance based data and through self-learning technology. Complement real-time data with rich consumer segments and couple this with attribution and we may just have a different landscape altogether.
It's the year of mobile again
What is mobile? Other than a device now which are multiple different sizes and something you can connect to a keyboard at will. The term mobile really just reflects the fact it is truly 'mobile' and is a device which markets can use to win the moments that matter. If you are still considering whether mobile should be on your media schedule, you should be concerned. Of course, on a last click bias mobile is a very tough to justify due to the high CPAs and low conversion rates, but mobile is so much more than a channel that compliments a media mix. 2015, 2016 and 2020 will be the successive years of mobile again because mobile isn't going away—it is only becoming more complex and rich in targeting, such as in-app, in store and beacon targeting using CRM data. Get involved and make mobile the centre of your media mix.
Content is everyone's new favourite product
Robbing Peter to pay Paul will not work with content. You need to define a budget and commit to sticking to it. Content is the life blood to your media, after all it is the shop window to your brand. Agencies all practice content it seems these days, and clients all seem to want it. Content may still be King, but context will always be the crown. Content for content sake is not only a waste of time, but a poor user experience. In an always on campaign, content is there to act like the mortar to the bricks of a house—it is always on, always there and constantly consumed.
Digital gets creative
As performance and experiential agencies become more adept and sophisticated in managing the full ecosystem of media, trust them to provide insight on creative and don't be the Hippo (Highest paid person's opinion). Creative has been democratised and the power is back in the hands of the consumer so show them what they want to see—not what you think they want to read. After all, consumers don't see big data, they experience content.