Marketing are only just beginning the journey to the ‘connected consumer’, in many ways we’ve gone backwards as more people are tuning out of message bombardment, now that its an average of 150 digital touchpoint per day. 22% already block ads. One friend boasted recently of being ‘Facebook free for 2 years’. The mobile phone network Three is set to trial adblocking across their network for 24 hours to enhance their customer experience and their analysis showing £4 in every £10 is sucked away by data hungry advertising.
Digital has been driving utility, performance and efficiency, not ‘connectedness’, channels are now even more fragmented. Brands are taking strides using this data mountain but its a huge challenge to make sense of it, never mind ‘connect’ it into a coherent consumer picture, build optimised digital experiences, or use it in more than quite simplistic personalisation and predictive ways. Collecting data, extracting insights and sophisticated use of it will be the primary route to creating connected consumer experiences and driving value. But plugging it all together to extract insight and act on it in real time is still a BIG challenge, no company has reached this stage of data enlightenment. Cutting edge are these examples from Channel4, O2, and TESLA.
Brands are getting more successful at bringing ATL and BTL together, there are numerous examples of innovation in OOH connecting the consumer, now in more meaningful ways like Cancer Research.
We are forecast to move on from behavioural prediction/ intent data to ‘mood’, so emotional data. Our mood affects what we buy. Companies such as Bentleys are already using facial recognition for establishing mood before engaging or selling.
With an average of 2.7 devices per user in the UK, data is set to explode exponentially driven by video and more significantly the IOT (in particular the connected car).
Snapchat continues its exponential growth, in the UK it has more daily active users than Twitter and more videos are shared on the platform than Facebook. Its users regard it more like a private member’s club, so brands tread carefully if you want to engage on it.
So there is a long way still to travel on the connected consumer journey. The young are likely to drive the shift to connectedness, their digital focus is more on exploration and ‘mind wandering’ than the fastest way to do something.
Do expect Connected Consumers to continue to define the marketing landscape. How brands should organise themselves for this new customer centric consumer is neatly outlined in this approach:
The Connected Marketer concept from mCordis is based around three guiding principles:
The creation, development and maintenance of a brand that understands and meets the needs of the connected individual. This includes recognising the importance of both connectivity and connectedness.
The mastery and synchronization of the four human dimensions physical, digital, sensorial and emotional in order to fulfil an individual’s need’s, on their own terms.
The mastery of the seven layers of connectivity; connection, collection, monitoring, analysis, prediction, synchronization & real-time service.
Marketers will need to orchestrate all of the capabilities (people, process & technology) needed to deliver an always-on, synchronised, consistent brand experience.
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