MarkLives.com – an independent online platform for news, opinion, analysis, case studies and profiles on South African and Southern Africa’s advertising – recently asked industry players, including Flow’s CEO and MD, to share their expectations and trend predictions for this year and beyond.
1. Increasing specialisation
The world of marketing, and digital marketing in particular, is becoming increasingly specialised. Take the field of social media, for example. A few years ago, it was eyebrow-raising to some older members of the industry when companies hired people to work exclusively on Facebook. Facebook is the biggest social network in the world and in South Africa, making it now impossible for marketers to ignore. Around 14-million South Africans are on Facebook, according to research by World Wide Worx released last year. If about 21-million South Africans are on the internet (see, for example, https://www.forbes.com/sites/tobyshapshak/2017/07/19/south-africa-has-21m-internet-users-mostly-on-mobile/#58002a2c1b2d), we can extrapolate that about 65% of people who do have access to the internet are on Facebook.
Nowadays, we need several different people to use Facebook as effectively, efficiently and creatively as possible – community managers, digital designers, paid Facebook marketers and content developers.
Similarly, other influential social networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat require different expertise. Google requires its own set of specialists. In other areas of the industry such as print, new colours, papers and ways of printing continue to emerge, and contrary to some views that print is dying, it continues to grow globally.
One takeout from this trend is that if you are running an agency, you will need to be continuously looking for or developing new skill sets on your team, just to keep up with your own areas of focus. There are also more opportunities than ever before to do new things. We’re seeing whole new types of specialist agencies emerge – such as content marketing, search marketing and social marketing agencies.
2. Increasing integration
While the advertising and marketing industry is becoming more specialised, the need for integration between disciplines is growing. Advertisers want campaigns that are more effective and cost-effective than ever, and this often requires different elements to work in concert to attain the greater goal. Where, in the past, we might have seen a specific PR or social media campaign, often the best campaigns are now integrated, leveraging the best of many worlds.
It’s becoming more and more the norm for advertisers to be appointing either integrated marketing agencies rather than specialists (e.g. an advertising agency with strong digital capabilities), or a panel of specialist agencies that are required to work together well. We’re increasingly seeing the coming together of elements such as PR, social media, web, app and software development, and offline elements including print, collateral and exhibition design, in single campaigns. One of the most hotly contested categories at the 2017 New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards, for example, was the Integrated Marketing Campaign, which attracted dozens of entries.
3. Artificial intelligence
We are in an age of ever-increasing, ever-improving technology. Never in the history of humanity has technological development moved so fast. A hugely disruptive and exciting trend is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is an umbrella term for a lot of different things. It is partly about infusing the intelligence of humans into robots, and getting robots to do things humans did previously (e.g. some international hotels are already using “botlers” – small robots that can even avoid people in passageways – to deliver room service). Humans learn and understand through their senses – by touching, hearing, seeing, etc.; the machine learning component of AI is about computers learning to learn the way humans learn.
Probably the coolest and most useful aspect of AI for the marketing and advertising industry is its predictive ability. Statistics say what has happened. Analytics say why and how things happened. But, by using and synthesising big data, AI can say what will happen. AI has the ability to predict things such as demand more accurately than ever. It may help us target markets within highly specific areas. It can discern gender, age and emotions of shoppers.
One example of AI in action is Australia’s Little Ripper drone, which monitors thousands of kilometres of dangerous coastline. It can detect large sharks (and tell them apart from whales and dolphins) and issue warnings to surfers, drop flotation devices and alert coastguards, all at a fraction of the cost of what these types of services would have cost before.
AI is going to mean more for humanity’s technological development than the wheel did. Clever advertisers will figure out ways to tap into it early to gain competitive advantage. As marketers, we have to think hard about how to harness this technology and help our clients be early adopters so, as partners, we can all be leaders in our industries.
4. Big data analytics
AI is useless without “big data” – another rather nebulous term used to capture a wide range of activities, including data capture, analysis and synthesis. Big data allows us to capture and mould information to interpret the present, past and even the future in ever more exciting ways. We all have lazy assets – data we have that we don’t do anything with. What does your company have? Sick-leave data for the past five years? You could use it to interpret what percentage of your staff is likely to be sick at any given time, allowing you to plan better.
The National Football League in the United States is using big data analytics to predict injuries in particular matches, depending on weather conditions and location.
We’re seeing several different technologies producing and making use of big data:
- Internet-enabled wearable technology, for example, such as a Fitbit or watch, allows medical aid companies to know more about their subscribers than ever before – from their average heart rates to their exercise and sleeping habits. This type of information allows them to build loyalty and to interact with their markets in individualised, direct ways
- The development of the field of external technology is seen in devices that can capture data from a distance, such as temperature screening at airports. New external cancer screening using the study of light can identify cancer cells far earlier than older and more invasive techniques. The military, medical and sport industries are pioneering the use of external technology – marketing won’t be far behind
- Then there’s the development of the industry of internal technology – e.g. tiny swallowable and non-invasive cameras that emit real-time data to replace endoscopies; low-cost computer chips embedded in sugar pills and activated by chemicals in your stomach; and nanotechnology, which, for example, has enabled the ability to send a chip through the bloodstream of a human body, looking for cancer cells and other abnormalities
New markets are developing with each of these technologies, providing new opportunities for both advertisers and marketers. Similarly, these technologies themselves have the ability to be transformative in the way we market.
5. Blockchain
Blockchain is a system of recording transactions that is written into a single, transparent, global ledger. It is built over time and on the internet, and underlies cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
It is another new disruptive technology that has been likened to the invention of the internet in terms of its far reach and multiple applications (bitcoin is only one small application of the blockchain). It provides a way to safely and transparently record and transfer data, and can enhance the efficiency and security of organisations.
In marketing, blockchain is likely to help build trust for consumers – e.g., blockchain could be used to verify each step of the manufacturing and distribution of a product, ensuring for the purchaser that it is authentic and ethical. This could be used for a wide range of products, from diamonds to coffee to shoes. Big global corporates such as SAP, IBM and UPS are exploring using cryptocurrencies in the coming months.
Blockchain is here to stay, and, like AI and big data, offers advertisers and marketers new markets as well as new ways of doing things. If you don’t understand it yet, now’s the time to explore it more carefully.
6. Knowledge is your competitive edge
The internet of things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and network connectivity that enable these objects to connect and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the existing internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of about 30-billion objects by 2020, producing trillions of pieces of information per second.
While data is everywhere, knowledge is unique. Knowledge is what you do with your data, seeing correlations, relationships, layers and overlapping patterns. Future job titles will be things like “knowledge carriers” and “knowledge innovators”, and the “chief analytics officer” (CAO) is likely to become one of the most important roles on the board of the future. How are you creating and using knowledge, possibly through the use of any of the technologies mentioned above?
7. The currency of culture
In this rapidly evolving world that is so dependent on technology, human interaction remains key. For agency owners, now is the time to invest in culture, more than ever. Culture is your brand. Culture is a currency on its own.
Stiffer competition, shrinking budgets, clients who demand more than ever for less than ever, tight cash flows, and slow and bad debt are some of the factors contributing to high stress levels and slimmer profits across the marketing and advertising industry. Now, more than ever, our employees need to feel safe and appreciated. A strong, values-based culture is your most-powerful weapon against an uncertain future. It will keep your staff loyal and positive.