What Is The Future of Digital Marketing, A Marketer’s Guide – 2012-22

Digital can be mainstream in 10 years

Youth in the larger metros and hand-held devicescould be responsible for driving this change.

Why?

• Already a major source for news even in real-time
• TV networks seeking online model to secure their share of the online revenue pie.
• Online ads are not just cheaper, but efficient and can be customized and served in real-time.

Social Communities Will Be a Part of Life

Current Global Trends:

• 57 percent of people talk to people more online than they do in real life and 78 percent of people trust consumer opinions posted online.
• Social networking has exploded globally. Nearly 1 in 5 minutes online is spent on social networking sites.
• What does it mean for brands: Digital media is increasingly becoming a part of life. Weave social media into everything you do to reach, engage, listen to consumers and invest in ORM.

Auction-Based Buys Will Take-over

• The top ranking reach networks Google and Facebook operate on bidding. The display investment with Google increased by 92 per cent in the past year.
• Real-Time-Bidding (RTB), based on audience data will become a ‘must’ for marketers due to their potential to enhance campaign performance.

Digital Media Agencies Will Buy Audiences

As it is an era of an increasingly data-driven market where consumers play a central role,traditional ad space buying model will slowly disappear, in exchange for an audience-centric model with greater efficiency to eliminate campaign waste.
This is the most outstanding trend that every marketer, publisher, agency, data mining company and technology enabler will have to watch out for.

Real Time Planning Will Take Over

Pre-campaign planning will be replaced by planning during the campaign. Instead of inventory, marketers will choose for an audience based on valuable intelligence that satisfies an advertiser’s requirement in real time.

Websites Will Be Critical

• Branding is going to play an enormous role in the future of website marketing because consumers are seeking information when they want and not necessarily when you are pushing content.
• Web marketers who take a strong branding and business building approach to the online platform (brands like Nike, the Mini, Adidas, Uniqlo, etc.) will flourish as opposed to those who do one off tactical initiatives on their websites.

Connectivity Will Be Independent of Devices

By 2016, it will all be about connection and what your device can do to achieve that. Media communications will be simplified owing to everything being well connected. Increased compatibility will facilitate communication across multiple platforms through which, the advertising industry will benefit tremendously.

Technology Will Drive Marketing Online

Will we be using a search engine like Google in 5 years? Will we be using desktop computers in 5 years? What will future social networks look like?
The acceleration of innovation in online technologies and the ways we can discover, consume and engage with information can be a challenge to keep up with.

Technology Will Drive Creative (& vice-versa)

• Driven by consumer expectations who need stimulus beyond the ordinary, first movers, stand alone innovations – that deliver a WOW experience to the consumer will stand out
• Marketers will need to look for communication opportunities that have the right mix of relevancy & surprise – To have long term ‘Top of Mind’ impact in the increasingly competitive space.

App-based Behaviour Will Drive Mobile Ads

• With mobile internet usage and mobile search already ahead of desktop, behavioral and geo-targeting, apps will completely change the way ads are sold and consumed on mobile.
• In the Indian context, apps can drive rural marketing where other modes of reach are limiting.

Location Based Services on the Go Advertising

• If used right, LBS can be a boon and offer an important basic capability that enables all sorts of innovation in mobile device tools and marketing.

Branded Apps Will Be a Norm

• Letting someone download a branded tool to enhance their experience of your brand, offers great potential for engagement, lead generation and even direct sales.
• The App revolution is fueled by a new level of utility in content for mobile devices. The popular tagline “there’s an app for that” is based on this utility. When you can find an app to enhance just about anything you are doing, the net effect becomes transformative.

M-comm will take Over E-comm

• Easily click a button on a device to trigger a micropayment from your own account without having to re-enter or re-confirm credit card details. M-coupons and offers will further fuel marketing efforts.
• As the recent text-to-donate campaign for Haiti from the Red Cross showed the world, trying these payments to user’s phone bills may offer another solution.

Digital Will Go Beyond Desktops & Hand-held

• Digital will link to outdoor, ambient and unexplored realms; all with traditional digital linkages to the Internet
• National Geographic’s Augmented Reality (AR) Experience in malls, Lynx Falling Angels outdoor AR experience, will be unforgettable for a long time to come and looked up on the web- way beyond the time when these events actually happened.
• For Marketers it means – Integrating digital in all your plans and capitalizing on activation opportunities where digital can add a revolutionary layer plus long term shelf life.

Consumer-centric Approach v/s Brand Approach

• Consumer data in terms of their likes and preferences is more accurately available. These can be harnessed to deliver a communication that is relevant and meets intangible consumer needs thereby strengthening relationships. Brands need to be more humane and grounded in order to strike a chord with the audience.

Brands with Pull Strategy Are the Dark Horses of This Race over push strategy.

@bcwebwise

We build a digital architecture that is rooted in research, strategy, branding and content. Layering it with the right brand building assets and maximizing deliverables with the right reach vehicles and technology in the digital spectrum is the key. Through this approach, we strive to achieve the extraordinary and build businesses.