Where is marketing going

First-party cookies will force marketers to be mindful of the data they collect and how they use it. In the same breath as privacy, website security is becoming more important than ever. In addition, prominently displaying a security seal of trust or trust badge on your website will reassure your site visitors that you take their safety seriously:. To make mobile commerce more user-friendly and profitable , Amazon recently launched Amazon Pay , its own online payment processing service, which lowers checkout friction:.

Merchants also get easy access to millions of Prime members with this service. Here are a few tips to help you ride the new mobile commerce wave successfully:. On the other hand, consumers want to connect with people they can relate to. With the rise of the creator economy, brands will have to engage with these independent content creators who command highly engaged audiences.

Video content may be the future of social media, but live streaming is the most preferred video marketing channel. In fact:. Consumers want authentic, unique content with the opportunity to interact or connect with the creator. Live streaming offers a viewing experience that puts them closer to the action. As a result, more and more companies use live video for business.

Instagram has recently ramped up its live streaming capabilities with the launch of Live Rooms , a feature that allows users to run a live stream with up to three people:. Moreover, Instagram has allowed viewers to support their favorite creators with Badges, Shopping, and Live Fundraisers. Both companies want more creators to leverage their platforms to raise a following and grow their business there.

Likewise, your business should consider using either of these social networks to create highly engaging live streaming video content. Twitch, a live video streaming service subsidiary of Amazon, deserves a mention all on its own. This platform boasts more than 30 million daily active users. Although Twitch has focused almost exclusively on the gaming community specifically, watching gamers play since it was founded in , it has recently expanded to other activities such as painting, cooking, and music.

Companies have been using Twitch as part of an influence marketing strategy. Similar to what can be seen in other platforms like YouTube and Instagram, Twitch influencers have a strong relationship with their followings.

As Game Skinny puts it:. Much like that, channels and streamers on Twitch foster their own community. People who enjoy the game, enjoy the person streaming, and maybe even enjoy hanging out with like-minded people. Successful streamers embrace this and some even do in-game activities with supporters of the stream.

Given the tight connection between creators and followers, brands will be adopting Twitch as another marketing channel to promote their content and engage with new target audiences. Gaming may have been the main use for Twitch so far, but marketers are starting to see its use to promote events, classes, workshops, and interviews.

When you think about online ads, you probably think of Facebook and Google. What about Amazon? Boasting over million worldwide Prime customers, Amazon is an ideal place for e-commerce brands that want to expand their reach.

The same search query in Amazon is more likely to come from users who are actively looking to buy a 4K TV. Can you see the power of Amazon ads now? Amazon Advertising offers a wide variety of ad products, four of the most popular being:.

The enormous opportunity Amazon advertising platform offers is undeniable and likely to grow in the years to come. People like listening to podcasts, whether they are from individuals or companies. However, podcasts can be tricky for marketers as listeners may not be prompted to take action, such as signing up for an email newsletter. In the next few years, marketers will take a more user-friendly approach that will prioritize:. Is it a surprise to say that people hate online ads?

It shouldn't be, considering that Among the many options available, some of which we mentioned here, marketers have found native advertising. Native advertising is a type of non-disruptive digital advertising in which the ad seamlessly blends in with the design of the web page it is published on. The IoT represents a network of devices, from smart cars to household appliances to wearable tech, that are connected between each other and the Internet. In this network, the connected devices can gather, share and analyze information and create actions synchronously.

Which means, of course, that brands and marketers want to use or are already using this data for their own business and advertising purposes.

For example :. The only challenge ahead is privacy. Inclusivity and diversity no longer belong to the HR world. Companies need to be careful that their messages, images, voices and values represent the full spectrum of potential customers and not leave anyone out due to their own unconscious bias.

In , Adobe conducted a research report of more than 2, U. A Nielsen report shows that:. Some ways that brands can make their marketing more inclusive include:. Although small, it's worth noting the changes: Google's market share dropped almost one percent, while every other search engine grew. Here are the numbers from two years ago:. While Google has been embroiled in data scandals such as the Cambridge Analytica fiasco in and was officially charged with antitrust violations related to its search and advertising businesses last year, DuckDuckGo has meanwhile been quietly growing their privacy-first search engine, hitting 92 billion all-time searches with nearly 29 billion searches in alone:.

Such an approach requires a profound change in data management processes which can be effectively achieved through neuromarketing tools , as they help to automate the conversion of data into actionable insights.

Creativity is the way to offer something unique to your customers, something, which gives you an unrivaled competitive advantage. They have a unique design philosophy — a pure product of creativity that helped them to substantially stand out among competitors. The future of marketing lies in the shift from being product-centric, to becoming customer-centric, which means that those who better personalize content will win Top 5 Viral Marketing Campaigns of - Lessons to Learn.

However, having a Ferrari that you can only drive 40 miles per hour is not much use. For your technology architecture to drive results, it must therefore be matched with sufficient scale in data to fuel its success, the right use cases to drive results, and the right approach to human enablement.

This latter requirement is perhaps the most important. Human enablement involves understanding how data and technologies will be used across the organization, making sure that people have the right skills to employ it effectively and that the right measurement approach is in place to motivate innovation and success. Without technology, data, human enablement and use cases in fine balance, the desired return on investment for marketing technology will not be realized.

Unquestionably, there was a time when marketing was a cost center within companies for which the principal accountability was to maximize return on investment. In tough periods when topline results were compromised, it was often one of the first areas to get cut. However, during the pandemic, marketing has been elevated within the C-suite as a driver of digital transformation, a key leader of the customer journey, and the voice of the consumer — all of which are of paramount importance to other functional leaders.

Without understanding the zeitgeist of the marketplace, in good times and bad, the C-suite cannot adjust to the threats and opportunities at hand and successfully navigate the future. Covid has created a leadership culture of immediate collaboration focused on the urgent need for resilience. As marketers, we are charged with a continued blend of art and science.

We must achieve the perfect balance of humans and automation to unlock a future of better analytics and deployment of AI at scale. We must use data as the fuel yet respect the craft of storytelling to drive meaningful human connections. We must tread a fine line between brand marketing and performance marketing, recognizing that we currently have a bias toward what we can readily quantify.

And we must understand what should be centralized and what should be bespoke, identifying where consistency helps and where it hinders. These new marketing truths embody this blend, highlighting the confluence of strategies, operations, and technologies required to drive growth in a post-Covid world. Embracing them represents the path to pandemic recovery and long-term success.

For companies and marketers accustomed to the ways of the past, a period of adjustment is ahead. Yet even at this time of flux, we can find familiarity and confident footing in the simplest and most critical truth of all: We must prioritize the perspective of the customer now, next, and beyond above everything.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms. You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access.

Not surprisingly, our consumer-sentiment research shows that personal health and economic wellbeing are top-of-mind concerns for people across many countries. And we believe the shared trauma of the pandemic will likely have a lasting impact—especially as new infection hotspots continue to emerge. Foot traffic in stores—as well as travel and events—will only return when people trust that spaces are safe and virus free. Increased cleaning and disinfecting as well as a mandate that all customers and employees wear masks are the top reasons consumers give for deciding whether or not to go to a store.

On top of this, millennials and Gen Z, in particular, are more widely adopting contactless activities, such as curbside pickup and self-checkout, which all ages indicate they intend to continue. Marketers will therefore need to think through a much broader range of shopping experiences, which will require greater coordination with sales and operations teams across the business. The preference for self-checkout or scan-and-go behaviors may also change traditional store boundaries and layouts.

Consumers may be more willing to shop display walls, for example, where items are shown and can be scanned for delivery. Our research shows that roughly 20 percent of US consumers have switched to a store brand, and almost half of them intend to stick with their new choices. As in other downturns, once customers start filling their baskets, thrift is a prominent factor in purchase choices, as value replaces luxury as a desirable attribute.

Trust, however, is also a key factor: 55 percent of consumers reported turning to brands they trust during lockdown. The increased use of sensitive health data—from publicly taking temperatures as a condition of entry to wearable devices that transmit health information—has already created privacy concerns and heightened issues around sharing data. Attitudes toward this use of personal data are far from uniform, and there are sharp divisions over the idea of trading privacy for freedom of movement and the opening of the economy.

How marketers maintain customer trust on data and privacy concerns can become a point of differentiation and even a source of competitive advantage. Socially conscious values have been in focus in recent years, and the current crisis will likely accelerate this trend. Some 61 percent claim that how a brand responds during the crisis will have a large impact on whether they continue buying it when the crisis is over. Brands can do this through the projects they choose to be involved in, the partners they choose to work with, the way they treat their employees, and the messages they send to customers.

Most importantly, brands will need to back up bold statements with real action. Some brands that are perceived as taking advantage of a cause or situation have already suffered a backlash. Brands will need to make clear commitments to causes they believe in or risk newly empowered consumers calling them out. The extent to which these trends stick will need to be systematically monitored.

But we believe marketers already have sufficient information and impetus to reimagine and modernize their playbooks Exhibit 2. The new playbook should be driven by answers to the questions that matter most:. While no one knows what the exact contours of the next normal will look like, we do know that things will not go back to the way they were.