Three Trends Shaping the Future of Marketing
Since the pioneers of the early 20th century began to formalize marketing as a discipline, it has been a dynamic field that continually evolves with changing consumer behaviors, advances in technology, and market dynamics. It has, perhaps, never moved faster than today, where our fast-paced, highly-connected modern life drives rapid shifts in consumer engagement with the world. For marketing that keeps pace with current demands, businesses must have a finger on the pulse of the present and an eye toward the future. Here are three trends we are watching — with the power to shape future marketing opportunities.
Amazon-powered audience targeting
Tech behemoth Amazon has made itself central to the daily lives of consumers worldwide. Now much more than an e-commerce retailer, it’s a gateway where hundreds of millions of users shop, stream content, and manage their lives with Alexa-enabled smart devices.
Because of this, Amazon now possesses an enormous well of audience data. For years, Amazon has focused on benefiting its sellers with this data. That’s about to change with a new program making audience insights and advertising solutions available to businesses that don’t sell on Amazon.
Even if your business isn’t on Amazon, your customers probably are. The long arm of Amazon reaches more than 300 million users, and Amazon understands them well. Equipped with information such as spending habits, disposable income levels, and preferences, Amazon is poised to unlock a new terrain of insights to a previously untapped market of businesses.
SA has been invited into a closed beta test of the new channel with our clients, where we’ll be exploring new opportunities for hyper-targeted and personalized advertising. Certainly, beta programs by tech giants can fail (remember Google+?), but the potential to leverage Amazon’s reach and insights could soon make this offering an advertising power player.
The shift to first-party data
While Amazon and other mega-brands are finding new ways to extend the benefits of their prolific data to others, every business needs a data strategy of its own. First-party data — or the information collected directly from customers through their interactions with a business — is now a premium asset in light of impending changes with Google.
The phase-out of third-party cookies by Google means marketers will lose what has historically been a valuable source of advertiser information. Third-party cookies enabled the tracking of web browsing behavior that helped advertisers target and personalize ads. Amid calls for a more privacy-oriented approach, Google is depreciating third-party cookies and testing new advertising methodologies for the future.
Businesses must build the reservoirs of the first-party data they own and prepare for a marketing and advertising environment that is far more privacy-centered. Doing so will build greater trust with customers, while developing a proprietary data source that is more accurate, reliable, and unique to their business. These shifts will drive greater optimizations of the customer journey and a more data-driven, customer-centric, and resilient business model.
The future of AI
Following the launch of ChatGPT, there is broad recognition we’re standing on the cusp of an impending AI-driven revolution. Marketing is one of many fields poised for transformation; the market for AI in marketing is expected to increase to more than $107.5 billion within five years.
At a minimum, AI seems prepared to optimize facets of the marketing landscape. AI-powered analytics, the deep processing of unstructured customer data for insights, individual-level personalization, AI-powered advertising platforms, and even AI-generated creative are all on a very fluid and dynamic horizon. As AI refines marketing operations, more resources will be shifted into agile and dynamic marketing operations to prepare for the future.
As we mentioned in our previous article, we are already incorporating AI into our idea generation, content development, and email marketing processes. We can’t say for certain where AI will go, but we expect its impact to be deep and lasting.
The ever-changing marketing landscape demands strategists remain forward-looking toward what captures audience attention, builds brand relevance, and drives business growth. Our eyes are trained on an exciting future that continues to present new opportunities to connect with audiences in new and impactful ways.
By Dave Miglin and Emily Bussiere. Dave Miglin is vice president of media and digital services at SA and Emily Bussiere is the director of data, research & insights. Learn more about our services.
