This year’s CES showed just how close the physical and virtual worlds have become, with almost every element of human behaviour now been augmented by technology. Along with the obvious benefits for individual progression, there is also a clear secondary benefit for businesses which is just as important. With technology comes data – an as marketers desperately seek to understand consumers across devices and down to the individual, data and its analysis is fundamental to business success.
Marketers are now expected to be able to base decisions on data insights rather than simply relying on ‘gut feel’. Once a profile has been defined, it then comes down to communication which is why engaging with content delivered programmatically, particularly on a smartphone has become just so attractive.
The rise of technology in creating a ‘want it now’ society
Increasingly, new technologies are enabling marketers to interact with consumers not just at a terminal, but on the move, wherever they are. The mobile device has become the most important possession for most, and this is driving a step change in the improvement of customer experiences on and offline.
Whereas five years or so ago websites were often functionally awkward, it is now relatively inexpensive to create a nice shop front online and market a company. Conversely, succeeding on the high-street and providing a fantastic offline experience is becoming more challenging. As a result, there are an ever growing amount of new technologies including iBeacons and location-based advertising designed to reach consumers at key decision points during their online and offline purchasing path. With the number of touch points growing, the data gained both on and offline has enabled optimisation of marketing campaigns at a swifter rate and by more cost-effective means.
Consumers have become ‘experience hungry’ and expect that, almost irrespective of the retailer, if a technology is implemented well by one retailer then it should be implemented across all retailers, with contactless payments a current example. You only have to look as the demise of key high-street retailers such as HMV, WHSmith and Woolworths for notable examples of what reticence to act can cause, viewed against the recent improvement in retailers such as Argos.
The rise of ‘content’ in reaching the right consumers
As well as technology implementations blurring the physical and virtual worlds, there is also a significant argument to say that the rise in content marketing and creative consumer engagement have changed the way consumers interact with brands. This has been amplified by technology but it has spiralled mainly due to its effect on consumers. Brands that really understand how to make consumers ‘feel’ about their products can easily steal a march on their competition.
Interestingly, the consumer journey for most now starts online in some shape or form, with “boomerooming” (searching online, viewing in-store and then purchasing online) now common place. Without knowing, this journey is also influenced online by the way in which marketing efforts have become increasingly sophisticated. With mobile continuing to rise as the device of choice for product research and comparison shopping, advertising is also playing its part in guiding consumers. Indeed, a stat from Ninth Decimal states that 45% of consumers made a retail purchase after seeing a mobile ad on their smartphone.
Overcoming the challenge of engaging consumers wherever they are
The key marketing challenge has always been how to engage personally yet with universal brand consistency across every consumer touch point, an aspect that has become increasingly significant with the proliferation of devices. Programmatic advertising allows advertisers to match their content to consumers who are more likely to be interested in their goods and services, by targeting ads against a myriad of factors including demographics, psychographics, behaviours, languages, and even installed apps. These variables are sliced and diced to make up discrete consumer audience segments.
Taking it even further, advertisers can weave in contextual information and geotargeting to reach those consumers at precisely the right time and place. Say for instance a clothing retailer wants to promote a grand opening coupon to working mums that are in the vicinity of its new store, and who have competing retail apps installed on their mobile devices. That can be accomplished with ease using programmatic advertising. Unlike with traditional media, programmatic impressions are auctioned and sold individually versus in mass, with each “auction” completing in a matter of milliseconds.
A truly connected world
If is fascinating to see how smartphones have revolutionised our lives and exponentially grown the amount of personalized data available. At the same time, we are beginning to reach an equilibrium where consumers are happy to be contacted by brands, so long as the contact is meaningful and relevant. Marketers are therefore being pushed to honour this and create content that is engaging and personalised. It is no surprise that brands like Coca-Cola, in their recent launch of ‘Coke Life’ mentioned that to get ahead they would create “an absolute exhaustion of connection points with our consumer”. Programmatic clearly provides the answer, resulting from its ability to make decisions based on huge amounts of data and reach consumers on a one to one basis.
