CMO.com turned to its array of contributors, colleagues, and staff and asked them what they envision the new year will bring for the digital marketing world. From new shopping behavior, to making sense of big data, to social TV and a mobile majority, their range of answers is staggering. Here is what they said we can expect in the coming 12 months.
Media Complements
Marketers will gradually develop a smarter understanding of digital convergence–how different media complement each other rather than all becoming the same thing. For instance, media consumption on tablets will grow exponentially but more as a “lean-back” activity (comparable to how we watch TV and read magazines) and less like the way we use either laptops or smartphones. Social media–both private brand communities and the big, open sites like Facebook and Twitter–will increasingly be used for insight as well as promotion. Other predictions are that TV viewing will not massively switch to on-demand; we will not see individually addressable TV advertising on a useful scale for many years, if ever; and marketers will find that (duh!) branded games don’t work unless people enjoy playing them.
>> Patrick Barwise, Emeritus Professor, London Business School
Adding Agility
The missing ingredient for every CMO in 2012 is agility, and the biggest trend Monetate sees for marketers moving forward is finding ways to add agility to their marketing operations. Agility is essential to running a world-class marketing operation, and the fact is that a lot of marketers feel overwhelmed with the pressure to meet quickly changing consumer expectations. In daily operations, marketers are constrained by their internal systems, and they’re frustrated that they cannot consistently and effectively execute on what consumers expect. They are being challenged to handle complex ideas and be relevant across new consumer touchpoints, and they are also challenged to meet rapidly evolving business expectations as well as the market expectations of consumers thanks to social tools. Furthermore, there is now a level of visibility placed on marketing activity unlike ever before as each interaction is amplified because every consumer is now a broadcaster on social media.
The good news is that new technologies now add enhanced levels of agility to marketing operations and offer CMOs the ability to empower the whole organization to bring consistency to all of the disparate consumer touchpoints including content management, e-commerce, in-store, email campaigns, etc.
>> David Brussin, CEO, Monetate
Changing Shopper Behavior
Three trends will finally converge as digital hardware, infrastructure, and programming all continue to explode. First, nearing 100% penetration of some device “mobile” and broader 4G availability will propel video streaming. Then new forms of device identification will finally enable real two-way communication for one-to-one marketing, customized messages, and market research. Last and most important, massive increases in advertisers’ digital spending will incite continued voracious expansion and creativity in digital offerings. So many program options have been invented in the past year or two. We predict 2012 will be the year these marketing innovations will expand dramatically.
For marketers, this trifecta will result sudden realization that integrated consumer and shopper marketing budgets are not keeping pace with digital shopper innovation. This is going to create increased pressure on marketers to more strategically align marketing objectives with the “right” mix of digital elements, specifically as it relates to changing shopper behavior, blurring online, in-store, and on-the-go channels. The tendency now is to do a little of everything, try to keep up, and hopefully learn along the way. This approach will be sustainable going forward, particularly as mobile capabilities expand rapidly. In 2012 and particularly in planning for 2013 and beyond, it will be time for marketers to re-evaluate their total spending—consumer, shopper, trade—and stop thinking about digital marketing as a separate spend, but rather a new way.
>> Alison Chaltas, Executive Vice President, GfK Interscope
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