Believe it or not, we are hurtling toward the fourth anniversary of the coronavirus lockdown. Of course, the exact date depends on where you live and what you consider to be the start of a lockdown, but for me in New York City, it all started around the time museums, libraries, restaurants, and bars closed. I did. That was around mid-March 2020.
I dug up this ancient piece of history, old by marketing technology standards, because of my reaction to a presentation released last month by management consultancy Winterberry Group. Outlook for Advertising, Marketing and Data 2024: A Market in Transformation (registration required) takes time to dig into the downturn in 2023, but also predicts macro trends for 2024.
These trends have some common characteristics, and it's worth considering where they come from.
Key trends for 2024
Of the many macro trends identified by Winterberry, the ones that caught my attention are:
- Connected commerce is accelerating.
- Video will be everywhere.
- Spending on content will continue to increase.
- Increased adoption of creative intelligence.
- The consumerization of B2B marketing is here to stay.
- Marketing attribution will be an even bigger challenge.
Indeed, Winterberry highlights generative AI as a key macro trend for the coming year. No surprises there. However, it provides marketers with quickly developed tools to negotiate the current environment. What I would like to consider is the environment itself.
face your body
Apparently Australian agency Momentum Worldwide can be blamed. Coining the word “phygital” This is a neologism that neatly blurs the good old Latin-derived terms “physical” and “digital.” But no matter what you think of the term, we have been moving into a physical reality for some time now, and this transition has been accelerated by the changes brought about by the coronavirus (cliché but true is).
In any case, consider all the well-documented changes that lockdowns have brought about in our already digitally connected culture.
We were already used to buying products online. Now, we buy everything online, including fresh produce, for delivery or in-store pickup. Plus, spending most of your day online means it's harder to turn off from the constant stream of digital and social ads, promotional emails and text messages, and enthusiastic approaches from influencers. Did.
Many of us will also be working remotely, which can mean moving seamlessly from channel to channel, device to device, and from work to personal matters. The meeting was held remotely. Most of the human contact was in remote areas.
All of the above should be familiar enough. I'm just looking into how “digital” most of us (but not all) feel about ourselves. But slowly, my physical condition returned. But in a new guise.
While we can once again browse products in stores, we've become accustomed to browsing a much wider range of products online (or in apps) than ever before. We wanted brick-and-mortar stores to bridge the gap between the digital experience and the physical reality of shopping. We wanted to interact with in-store advertising digitally, perhaps through QR codes. We wanted to receive offers and discounts related to our physical location (with our consent).
And don't forget to pay. It has become an unusual situation for customers to be asked to pay in cash at stores. We tap to move (we even do that on public transit in New York City). The Amazon Go store doesn't even do that. You just walk away and Amazon dips into your digital wallet.
The physical environment is rapidly becoming thoroughly digitized. So, sorry, physiological.
A world for digital (and physical) natives
We talked a lot about the Internet of Things. Of course, this is where connected refrigerators and super-connected vehicles come into play. But I suggest it's time to step back and think in terms of connected environments. Google Glass never caught on, and AR headsets are still clunky. However, the hardware will be modified and we will be digitally as well as physically involved as we move through the world.
It means that the generation of physiological natives is approaching. But let's stop for a moment and look at digital natives. Digital natives, especially in B2B. According to Winterberry, more than 50% of B2B customers research products and services online before making a purchase decision (we knew that), seek information on social media, and search for content on mobile. and are more likely to interact with brands that provide quality service. High quality, personalized content. That means digital content, not personalized direct mail, of course.
This isn't just consumerization of B2B, says Winterberry, “it's about elevating digital natives into B2B decision-making roles.” Yes, B2B buyers are acting like consumers, driven in part by COVID-19 forced remoteness. Wait until physiological natives appear. If anyone is attending a non-physical (via app, smart badge, or interactive screen) marketing conference this year, please let us know.
What other trends?
Just follow the passing line. What more needs to be said about what's driving connected commerce? Here's Winterberry.
“Reaching connected, omnichannel shoppers wherever they are is critical. $15BB per year is being shifted to Commerce Media Networks (and more than just groceries!) to drive demand and conversion. Brands are looking to optimize their trade promotion investments both on-platform (digital and in-store) and off-platform (open web and social).”
Winterberry (registration required).
We're not going to be drifting through physical space with our noses in essays and white papers, so videos, or more broadly graphics and visuals, will actually be everywhere.
Consumer touchpoints have become so diverse and diverse that multichannel attribution has already taken a huge hit. What about the current evolution from a multi-channel environment to one that is itself a vast, always-on channel? 95% of consumers have their mobile device in their hands or at least at hand while watching TV. This is a physiological soup of behavioral influences. It's probably connected to your TV, not just your phone, but anything you have open on it: apps, social media, chats, etc. Why not add an Apple Watch, an adjacent tablet or laptop?
What do all these devices have in common? They serve content. No wonder content spending is on the rise, and no wonder investment in “creative intelligence” is on the rise. I put that phrase in fear quotes because it has traditionally referred to the ability to come up with innovative solutions to problems. It doesn't necessarily have to do with software.
In the context of the Winterberry report, I think we can say that the term is refocusing the use of AI, generative AI, and machine learning in content creation. Yes, we needed to go back to generative AI. It may not be responsible for ushering into the physical world, but (if it can overcome some significant challenges) it will be responsible for much of what we find there.
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