Marketing has been transformed by technology. It makes campaigns more personal and immersive for people and creates ecosystems that are more targeted and integrated for marketers. It’s not only the interface between brands, people, and technology that has been transformed. Marketing technology has impacted the infrastructure and systems that companies are built on, adding value to procurement and increasing the bottom line.
2013 saw 47% of US marketers focus on creativity as a key component in their marketing strategies. This was 29% less than the last year. 56% of marketers believe that creativity and technology will play equal roles in 2022. 30% will prioritize technology over creativity.
Be there for consumers
We can understand why this is happening by looking at how people access their information, what they like to do with their time, and what their shopping habits are.
Connectivity: The internet is used by approximately 4 billion people worldwide, which means that about 50.8% of the world’s population is connected. Over the next three years, India and China will have more internet users than the US.
Mobile: Over 5 billion people are connected to their mobile devices via smartphones. Mobile ads will spend $93 billion this year, more than $20 billion more than TV. E-Commerce: In 2021, 2.14 billion people will buy goods and services online.
Entertainment: Half a billion people watch videos online every day.
What brands marketers need
It is also possible to look at the needs of marketers to understand why chatbots and blockchain are becoming more popular. Technology is no longer a means of transmitting information, but a tool to improve communication.
Personalization at scale: According to a Monetate/WBR Research study, 93% of businesses that use advanced personalization strategies reported an increase in their revenue in 2018.
Experiential marketing: Experienced marketing can offer a ten-fold return on investment compared to digital marketing. It creates emotional bonds between brands and consumers, which in turn builds measurable loyalty.
Accountability & Transparency: Only 27% of the US$63.4 trillion that brands spent in 2017 on programmatic made it to working media. Ad fraud cost brands up to 12%, while 55% were harmed by the “tech tax”, which is applied at every stage of a programmatic purchase.
Marketing and technology can work together
Marketers will need to have the help of their technology, legal, and information departments to understand how to best apply new technology to a product or brand.
Marketers will need to decide how to use the data they have collected. The most advanced technology is useless without the marketing intelligence that unifies data insights.
Increase revenue with more budget
Marketers are concerned about the cost of investing in new technology. However, total costhe t will likely decrease as economies of scale increase and competition among platform and service providers increases.
As marketing budgets increase, so will marketing technology spending. The US’s total advertising spend is expected to rise 24% between 2018-2022, from $220.96 to $274.44 trillion, while marketing technology budget spending is forecast to remain steady at 30% in 2018 to 32% in 2022.
The type of company and level of implementation will determine which technology category will get the most investment. While some technologies can be integrated with legacy systems easily, others require extensive integration. The revenue these technologies will bring companies is worth the investment. Digital interactions with more customers will result in greater data sets that will enable retailers to tailor promotions, prices, and products dynamically for each customer.
