FIGARODIGITAL.CO.UK
ESSAYS
2020 Vision
As the decade reaches the half-way point we consider some of the factors that could shape digital marketing between now and 2020
WEARABLES It’s not so long ago that wearable technology looked like the solution to a problem no one actually had. Who, in the far-off days of 2010, imagined they’d own pair of jeans that doubled as a gesture-interactive digital platform? Levis are expected to bring a pair to market in 2016. Strides in technology and the emergence of a generation for whom everything is digital mean that over the next five years wearables will come out of the closet. For marketers, the key factors will be utility and permission. Do we want round-the- clock push notifications on our smartwatches? How confident are we that data about physical or medical conditions will remain private? Marketing may be the uninvited guest at the wearable party, but there’ll be profound implications for our relationship with technology and how intimate we’re prepared for that to be.
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING As with so much in the digital sphere, this isn’t a new idea. At its simplest, relationship marketing means investing in long-term customer loyalty rather than quick but transitory transactions. And since loyalty is a human response to activity deemed trustworthy or valuable, the onus is on brands to be transparent. (There’s an interesting cultural corollary with what Mark Zuckerberg has described as the end of privacy as a social norm and in our hailing of corporate whistle-blowers.) Writing for Fast Company earlier this year US entrepreneur Neil Patel pointed to the start-ups operating an open policy on revenue and even salaries. “Transparency is one of those subtle things that can make a dramatic impact on a business. Yes, it will impact your bottom line. But that’s not the whole point. The point is that it helps everyone do business better—you, your clients, your team.”
BEACONS The location-based wireless sensor has had a comparatively slow start but Gartner has identified ‘high-precision location sensing’ as a trend that businesses need to be on top of by 2016. This is also an area where bricks-and-mortar retailers can co-operate rather than compete with digital technology. Delivering offers to local, opted-in users is only the most obvious example. In New York Facebook has started the roll-out of
response to activity deemed trustworthy, the onus is on brands to be transparent
48 issue 25 july 2015 Since loyalty is a
Place Tips, which enables businesses to send updates to local smartphone users. Companies are not able to advertise, but that may change. Nor will data be collected from users or their phones. As Business Insider notes, “For retailers, enabling beacons through Facebook solves a major challenge around this new piece of tech. Only a small percentage of consumers actually download a retailer’s own app, and fewer still enable push notifications from these apps. Facebook, on the other hand, has a massive user base, so there’s lots of built-in potential for beacons.”
VIRTUAL REALITY Nothing signals the future like VR. Writers and filmmakers have been imagining it for 50 years, but the actual reality has been slow to dawn. With Oculus Rift now scheduled for 2016 and a focus elsewhere on affordable, portable technology (including Google’s cheap ‘n’ cheerful cardboard headset) could the door finally be open to digital’s next dimension? Mountain Dew, Jim Beam and Volvo have all been experimenting, but the production costs are high. Writing earlier this year, Dom Raban at Corporation Pop noted that successful developments in VR will need to be usable, enjoyable, valuable, affordable and portable.
WHAT MARKETING FACES Writing in the Guardian last year, NewsCred’s Head of Strategy Michael Brenner speculated on what the marketing department of 2020 might look like. He highlighted the importance of data drawn from every touch-point, online and off. Content will play a central role in engagement and retention. Managing channels, technology and the flow of data will be fundamental. According to Professor Steven van Belleghem, by 2020 marketing departments will need data, technology and content to deliver “extreme customer-centricity, without selling.”
FEATURE BY JON FORTGANG
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