After only being in the region for five months, I’ve been getting involved in strategic marketing transformation initiatives for a number of clients and the same question keeps coming up time and time again: how do we use technology to create stronger, more relevant, integrated and connected experiences for our consumers?
Sometimes we are scared of what is happening around us and are unable to grasp how or what we should do with this super-cool new wave of technology that is supposed to change our lives. Why? Because we sometimes have a habit of underestimating the long term and overestimating the short term in terms of technology. Periscope in 2015 was the new shiny toy in the social media box; today in 2016 it’s virtually dead.
Time and time again we see that brands are only ever concerned about the here and now and not about the future and adapting and deploying technology infrastructure that will create real change in the future. With connected moments the horse has already bolted, and whether we like it or not connected moments are here to stay and will form an integral part of the future of marketing communications.
Connected relevant moments and personalised experiences are shaping the future of marketing. Year on year it is getting faster, more agile, more insightful and more data-driven.
Every day, I discuss with brands how we should start to connect experiences, how and where the consumer is in the life cycle journey? These are specific questions that both brands and agencies should be asking: what behaviours, attitudes and motivations affect our audience and how do we connect the dots to create greater relevancy?
Today we walk towards our car and Google informs us about a traffic incident and to take a different route. I drive down Sheikh Zayed Road and a digital billboard says ‘hello’ and delivers a personalised message to only me using visual recognition by identifying the colour and make of my car. In my short time in the Middle East region, one thing I have learned, apart from its cultural diversity and fastest-growing digital consumer audience on the planet, is that its inhabitants are already in the world of craving for connected spaces. They need it and expect it. In our new world of instant gratification, we expect everything to work and every single touchpoint and engagement to be instantaneously relevant.
So I ask the question: how often do creatives, strategists or marketing specialists really think about the content they are creating, to deliver a real-time reward that is relevant to that consumer in that moment? And I’m not talking monetary.
We need to dispel the myth of rewards being based purely on transactional methods such as purchase, and instead believe in a greater world of relevancy; creating greater brand rewards at peak moments in the life cycle of a customer journey is critical to success, and it leads to hyper engagement. These rewards should be embedded into experiences that users are already using. The reward should be serendipitous and all moments should be rewarded in between any given transaction.
So what are the current trends?
Every screen will be seamless. Customer experience will become complex but brilliant and connected. China has already demonstrated how you can create a seamless, interconnected experience. Users are now able via their phone to buy tickets to the cinema, watch the film, comment on it during the film, and then listen to the soundtrack on the way home in the car, creating a truly connective experience. As a result, brands should begin to create moments of pre-intent, using connected devices and adding to greater brand experience moments. By knowing the proximity of the device we can even help to change daily habits.
Predictive productivity will soon be upon us. In three years you will simply be able to put a Yorkshire pudding in the oven (sorry for being so English), go off to the gym and not worry that it will be burned because you wanted the extra 20 minutes in the sauna. Why? The oven recognises via food recognition what’s in the tin, it knows how to cook it to perfection, and when it is cooked it turns the oven right down so it doesn’t burn. How’s that for connected cooking?
We have now evolved into a generation where instant gratification is a given. We have become the instant generation and ‘Amazon Echo’ only exacerbates the current mire of technology that is at our disposal.
So how do marketers address this? Well, if you cannot create instant gratification then at least acknowledge it in the moment, look for new bite-sized forms of content, and develop an ongoing recipe bank. At the end of the day we are providing a service to consumers – not just advertising – and part of that service is delivering value. Value is ultimately delivered through relevant, personalised content, and that creates great moments.
The question is: what moment are you going to add value in?
Matt Butterworth, Regional director of digital and integration at MullenLowe MENA
