FUTURE TRENDS - 2017 Marketing Predictions

It’s a new year and the continuing evolution of digital media, new technologies and strategies, and faster than expected growth of mobile can make choosing a marketing path very challenging.

There’s just so much to know, understand and make work together.

Marketo has put together 2017 Marketing Predictions that includes what they believe marketers need to focus on this year.

At the top of the list is Customer Centric Marketing.

Customer behaviour used to be fairly easy to predict. Not anymore - now that the cost of switching products/providers is low and customer choices are high.

Engaging customers in personalized relevant ways, building authentic connections and giving as much as you get will be key.

They are predicting the end of an era of marketing specialists and growth in importance of generalists, along with the use of technology to facilitate even more cooperation between different departments.

In the past marketing focus has largely been on bringing the customer in, but there will be more and more emphasis on engaging them at every stage of the lifecycle.

User experience, especially for mobile, will become an increasingly important factor along with real time engagement.

For more details and predictions download Marketo’s slide deck.

DIGITAL - Instagram Advertising is Growing, Take Advantage

Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter.

So it’s not surprising Instagram is becoming a key player in online advertising.

To help companies create effective ads, AdRoll has created The Performance Advertiser’s Guide to Instagram.

The free download includes:

• Guidelines for Instagram ad formats
• 17 Essential tips for Instagram advertising success
• How to track the performance of your campaigns
• How other companies have used Instagram to grow their business.

Social Media Examiner’s podcast - Instagram Ads: What Marketers Need to Know - goes into detail about Instagram ad features and tips.

Guest Jenn Herman, a social media consultant and Instagram expert, also discusses the differences between Facebook and Instagram ads and how to run successful ad campaigns.

Instagram is a great medium to target Millennials - with over 90 percent of users younger than 35 years old.

The social media channel has shown massive growth over the past years - from 30 million users when it was purchased by Facebook in 2012, to over 500 million users today.

Instagram’s global mobile ad revenue is predicted to reach $2.81 billion in 2017.

BUSINESS - Pet Supplement Market Continues to Grow

(Flickr user Michelle Tribe)

The supplement market, for humans and for pets, can be controversial and confusing, but there is an undeniable, and growing, market for supplements.

Consumers are worried about their own health and their pets’ health, and supplements are one way they address these concerns.

The US pet supplement market is expected to see sales upwards of $697 million by 2019, continuing the trend that market analysts have been watching since 2008.

The pet market is particularly competitive right now, because regulatory requirements for entry into the market are low, and interest is high.

This balance will shift as the pet health supplement industry becomes more regulated, but if it has even a fraction of the staying power of the human supplement market, retailers will continue to see growing sales.

The parallels (and cross-overs) between the human and pet supplement markets are significant.

Certifications for labels like organic or gluten-free are similar between the two industries, which makes it easy for established human health supplement companies to bring in a line of similar supplements for pets.

Human clinical trials are often used as the source for information on a supplement’s safety and efficacy, and dosages are adjusted based on age, size or breed.

Joints, skin and coat, and digestion are among the most common health issues addressed by supplements for pets.

Prebiotics and probiotics are becoming more popular in pet supplements, but PetMD cautions that veterinarian supervision is critical if your pet is on a prescription diet. Many of these diets already contain supplements or ingredients that would interact with a supplement.

The most common supplement for pets is glucosamine. Glucosamine has been used in humans for years, and there is good scientific evidence to support its use for osteoarthritis.

However, the pet supplement market is less rigidly regulated than the human supplement market.

Testing in 2009 found that 25% of 87 tested brands sold in the United States either did not contain the listed ingredients in the listed amounts, or did contain other ingredients that could be harmful, such as lead.

Although pet supplement companies have invested significant time and effort into developing safe supplements for pets, as a largely unregulated industry, there are risks to the consumer.

There are also risks to suppliers.

American pet supplement suppliers are in a legal grey-area, and the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) notes that there are over 400 ingredients currently being sold in pet supplements that are not approved by the FDA for use in animal feed, and are also not approved as animal drugs.

These ingredients include the popular glucosamine and chondroitin, and marketers are conscious of the risk that these products could be pulled from the market if the FDA decided to clarify this legal grey area.

Canadian pet supplement suppliers have a specific process to go through in order to have their products registered and approved.

This is a temporary solution, and it remains to be seen whether Canada will stay with their third-party program administrator, North American Compendiums (NAC), or if they will bring regulation under their own administration.

By Tiffany Sostar

Tiffany is a writer, editor, academic, and animal lover who came late to her appreciation of pets. At 18, a rescue pup named Tasha saved her from a depression and she hasn't looked back. She has worked as the canine behaviour program coordinator for the Calgary Humane Society, and was a dog trainer specializing in working with fearful and reactive dogs for many years. She doesn't have any pets right now, but makes up for it by giving her petsitting clients (and any dogs she comes across on her frequent coffee shop adventures) extra snuggles.

DIGITAL - Artificial Intelligence Offers Marketing Opportunities

Artificial intelligence (AI) has fascinated humans for generations, and dystopian futures full of malevolent intelligent robots have remained a science fiction staple since the 1940s, and have only grown in popularity since the term “artificial intelligence” was coined in 1965.

Robots and AI - benevolent or violent – still feature prominently in science fiction, but also in speculative fiction and non-fiction, and they are a significant research direction for many technology companies and institutes.

The fear of malevolent AI is on the minds of many, but others see the potential for deep connection and community within benevolent AI, such as in Eugenia Kuyda’s fascinating and heart-wrenching construction of an AI that spoke in her deceased best friend’s voice, using his words.

This is a type AI that drives connection and community, and is a tool for health and healing - a far cry from HAL 9000, and closer to projects like benevolent.ai, that use AI to advance healthcare and search through emerging research for marketable trends.

It is this potential for conversation and connection that makes so much marketing and customer interaction possible in developing AI technologies.

More and more, AI and adaptable bots are part of the fabric of everyday life.

AI is no longer a science fiction trope, it is now a reality. And, critically, AI, or at least learning bots, are a marketing tool that will become increasingly relevant as consumers demand round-the-clock, real-time responsiveness from brands. 

AI is already present within marketing.

AI systems are curating content, making suggestions for products or “people you may know”, analyzing credit and debit card usage to prevent fraud, and even helping people fight parking tickets or keep their housing in the face of housing insecurity and homelessness.

As marketing moves forward, customers will expect more interaction, and more responsiveness.

FastCoCreate’s sector forecasting suggests that marketers will strive to “make everything a catalyst for conversation” and AI will be an important part of that process.

There are risks with using AI, as Microsoft learned with the launch (and quick shut down) of Tay. Allowing AI to learn from the internet at large is a significant risk, and Tay learned the worst parts of contemporary human interaction from Twitter.

Marketers will need to be aware and ready to respond quickly to problems in the system, and be conscious of curating and guiding the process or risk repeating Facebook’s error when it’s “on this day” algorithm failed to analyze context and ended up presenting users with ex-partners, unhappy memories, and even deceased pets and friends. Good automation requires good algorithms.

Artificial intelligence is here, and is a fascinating, exciting, and growing field. It will have significant impact on employment and labour, marketing, even health care and education.

The current consumer climate is changing rapidly, and adapting to customer demands through using leading edge technologies – including AI – is an important tool in any marketer’s belt.

By Tiffany Sostar

Tiffany is a writer, editor, academic, and animal lover who came late to her appreciation of pets. At 18, a rescue pup named Tasha saved her from a depression and she hasn't looked back. She has worked as the canine behaviour program coordinator for the Calgary Humane Society, and was a dog trainer specializing in working with fearful and reactive dogs for many years. She doesn't have any pets right now, but makes up for it by giving her petsitting clients (and any dogs she comes across on her frequent coffee shop adventures) extra snuggles.

DIGITAL - Using Emojis for Marketing

Most everyone has dropped an emoji into a text or social media post - the symbols are turning into the new internet slang.

And more brands are using them in their marketing than ever before. 

Research, by mobile app provider Appboy, also showed most mobile phone users have a positive perception of brands that do so.

Their survey of mobile phone users in the U.K. and U.S. concluded that most users age 14 and over thought brands that used emojis were fun and relatable.

Analysis of the Appboy platform showed in June 2015, brands sent 145 million mobile messages containing emojis. A year later, Appboy reported that 814 million emoji-containing mobile messages were sent, an increase of 461%.

As companies look to stay relevant or be part of a trend by utilizing emojis, it’s important to keep in mind that 11% of respondents thought they were unprofessional and 12% childish.

So how can emojis be used effectively?

Before using emojis, organizations need to determine:

• How their audience interacts online
• If emojis will enhance the branded message
• Which emojis are relevant to the company brand
• How often to use them and
• Ensure they understand what the emoji means.

Domino’s Pizza won the Titanium Grand Prix for breakthough idea of the year for developing an emoji ordering system - a quick tweet featuring the pizza emoji led to an instant order, which was confirmed through a direct message.

Chevrolet composed a press release using only emojis for the launch of the 2016 Cruze.

The creative folks at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched the first emoji based fundraising campaign with their #EndangeredEmoji Twitter campaign. Every tweet using one of their custom emojis resulted in a donation to WWF and increased awareness about protected animals.

While these campaigns were done by big brands, smaller companies can also use emojis successfully.

Emojis aren’t likely to become the go-to digital marketing tool, but can be effective for some campaigns and even one-on-one communication with customers.

Using them just depends on relevance, target audience, affinity and frequency.

DIGITAL - Digital Trends You Need to Know About

No doubt you’ve been hearing terms like ‘customer experience is top priority’ ‘mobile is the future’ and ‘data is key’.

Econsultancy and Adobe surveyed 7,000 marketing, digital and ecommerce professionals around the world to examine these trends and see just where businesses are and should be putting their resources.

The results are now available in the free 2016 Digital Trends report.

Read the report to learn:

• The top digital priorities and investments for marketers in 2016
• How to overcome the challenges of using customer data
• Why marketers continue to struggle with their customer-centric transformation
• How mobile investment and monetization is a growing priority for engaging customers
• About the remaining challenges for full digital integration in companies

Wikibrands recently tweeted:

“67% of executives believe digital transformation is a matter of survival for their business via @PrecogDigital”

“CEO’s rank technology factors as the biggest influence on their business, ranked 6th in 2004 via @PrecogDigital”

Don’t delay your digital integration - the fast growing use of mobile and social indicate you'll regret being left behind.

DIGITAL - The Power of Pet Influencers

Move over Kim Kardashian.

There are a few new players attracting attention on the beast that is social media.

And THESE kittens (and canines) are keeping their clothes on.

They are so-called pet influencers – cats and dogs who, in some cases, make thousands of dollars posing in glamorous photo shoots and doing product endorsements, while garnering throngs of followers on everything from Twitter to Instagram and Facebook.

With last year's pet spending in the U.S. surpassing the $60 billion mark (according to the American Pet Products Association) it makes perfect sense retailers would want to reel in four-legged ambassadors to push their products.

“People have this innate perception pets generate these warm, happy, fuzzy feelings,” Loni Edwards told Digiday.

“Brands are starting to reach out because they make people genuinely happy and they want their ads to make people happy.”

(Chloe the mini Frenchie)

Edwards would know. She is a self-proclaimed “momager” to Chloe, a mini Frenchie, who is hot in the world of online pet influencers brands seek to recruit for advertising campaigns.

Her media-darling doggie has 135,000 followers, has been featured in a Budweiser Super Bowl promotion and collaborated with brands like Vogue, Martha Stewart, Barneys, Bow & Drape and PetSmart.

So popular, the pooch has even attracted recognition from her many fans.

“That was the point at which I realized she was famous,” Edwards says of a New York City moment when a stranger recognizing her canine companion rushed in excitedly for a photo.

But Chloe has by no means cornered the market.

The pet influencers realm is a dog-eat-dog world pitting several pets - which happen to be particularly cute - vying for Internet popularity.

Toast the King Charles, Nala the cat, Loki the Wolf Dog and Sir Charles Barkley are downright divas – appearing in photo shoots which pull in between $2,000 to $3,500 per endorsement deal.

Given the top dogs, so to speak, on the Instagram social media platform boast more than a million followers apiece – it pretty much goes without saying it offers a sort of exposure which translates into an ideal marketing tool for companies looking to cash in.

Industry insiders say, advertisers working with pet influencers are barking up the right tree when employing the animals to try to ramp up their advertising appeal.

Loki the Wolf Dog, a prime example of how it works, starred in a Mercedes Benz's virtual reality campaign for its 2017 GLS SUV.

“Loki and his story aligned particularly well with our SUV portfolio,” says Mark Aikman, general manager of marketing services for Mercedes-Benz USA.

“Our research has shown that a large number of SUV owners have pets.”

The top 5 animal influencers according to digiday are; Nala-cat, Marutaro, tunameltsmyheart, marniethedog and jiffpom – bona fide celebrities posing with pop stars, taking in movie premieres, promoting pet charity events and even making appearances at Black Lives Matter rallies.

“You’re essentially merging the two biggest trends — social and pet memes — and tying that with branding,” Speakr founder and CEO Marco Hansell is quoted as saying in digiday. “It’s the perfect formula.”

 

Pet influencers show no sign of waning but instead gaining popularity.

There are now management agencies that exclusively handle pet influencers.

Speakr, (which “fuels the most impactful campaigns in social for the world’s largest brands” and sees “more than 60 major brands leverage our technology platform and influencers network,”) saw a 200 percent growth from 2014 to 2015 in pet requests.

By Nadia Moharib

Nadia Moharib is an animal lover who has adopted everything from birds to hamsters, salamanders, rabbits, fish and felines. She has written about all-things-pets for years and was a long-time editor of a pet magazine in a daily newspaper which featured a Q & A column, Ask Whit, penned by her pooch (ghost written, of course.) The serial dog owner lives in Calgary, Alberta and most days can be found at a dog park picking up after her rescue pooch, Scoots.

BUSINESS - The Shift to Customer-Centric Marketing

Customer-centric marketing is a strategy with the primary goal of acquiring high-value customers and maximizing the value of every customer relationship.

It acknowledges that there is no "average" customer and that the differences among customers represent an opportunity to build more long-lasting, profitable relationships through relevant communication.

Why is there such a ‘buzz’ about customer-centric marketing?

It has been fueled by the growth in e-commerce.

With web technology enabling customers to engage with companies in a variety of ways, the mentality of mass messaging is being transformed into a dialogue between retailers and customers.

Data from loyalty cards and information gathered about individual customers through their social media activity gives the company the opportunity to tailor communications to different customer segments in a more meaningful and relevant way.

The customer becomes the focus as the company determines how to best meet their needs.

(dagency.co.uk)

In some ways, customer-centric marketing is old school - a return to a personal relationship between customer and neighbourhood retailer. It’s just being done through more electronic channels.

Product-centricity (competitive advantage through superior product design or merchandising) or channel-centric marketing (focus on achieving dominance in one or more channels), are common marketing strategies that are in contrast with customer-centricity.

IBM Marketing Cloud is offering a webinar - 5 Smart Ways to Build a Behaviour-Driven, Data-Enriched Customer Experience - on June 23rd to help you determine if you are engaging customers (and future customers) where, when and how it's most convenient to them.

They will discuss how you can build your marketing approach around customer behaviours, integrate and act on data from across channels, and deliver a more satisfying experience throughout the customer journey.

Get tips for:

• Shifting your approach to a more customer-centric model
• Identifying and capturing the critical cross-channel data you need
• Employing behaviours to drive better experiences across each buyer journey stage
• Using real-world success stories to fuel big results for your company.

Learn more.