On 27th April, IAB Europe hosted the first Virtual CTV Event of 2022, and with over 200 people in attendance, it was a huge success!
Featuring a series of panel discussions and market deep dives from IAB Europe and IAB Europe member companies, the event unpacked key topics from the current CTV landscape in Europe to measurement and targeting.
In this post, you will find an overview of each of the sessions covered, as well as video recordings for you to view in your own time. Enjoy!
Watch the full event recording here or keep reading to find out more about the individual panels and recordings.
The event began with an insightful keynote presentation from IAB Europe’s Senior Digital Advertising Analyst, Tom Suttle, on the latest stats and facts from the CTV ecosystem.
Watch Tom’s presentation here.
The first panel discussion of the day: CTV in 2022 was moderated by Gregor Fellner, Director of Business Development at Rakuten Advertising.
We are starting to see the easing of COVID restrictions across the globe, but what will this mean for the CTV landscape in 2022? This panel reflects on how the pandemic has shaped the CTV market over the past 2 years.
For this highly relevant conversation ad Q&A, Gregor was joined by:
The second panel discussion and Q&A: CTV Targeting and Measurement was a deep dive into the latest challenges for our industry when it comes to CTV and cross-screen measurement, as a follow on from our recently released Guide to CTV Targeting and Measurement. Moderator, Jessica Trainor Vice President Ad Platform Partnerships at Comscore was joined by:
Watch the recording here to understand the current hurdles and what needs to be done to overcome them.
The event finished with another keynote, but this time from Shailley Singh, SVP Product Management & Global Programs at IAB Tech Lab. The presentation – Latest CTV Advertising Standards with IAB Tech Lab – covers recent and upcoming standards releases and revisions to support the growth of Connected TV and cross-media video. It will be an opportunity to learn how new feature- both recently released and planned for IAB Tech Lab standards, software and Transparency Centre make buying, selling, delivering and measuring Connected TV safe, transparent and TV like experience for advertisers and consumers.
Watch the recording here to understand what is new for CTV in Open RTB, Transparency Centre, Video Ad formats, Open Measurement and more.
We want to say a massive thank you to our excellent speakers and to our listeners.
We hope to see you all at the next Virtual CTV, later in the year!
In just a few weeks, the E-commerce Berlin Expo will be kicking off! This is definitely an event not to be missed if you are in the e-commerce industry. With hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors expected, you are sure to gain some valuable insights that will help your business grow. Make sure to get ready for the biggest e-commerce event of the year!
About E-commerce Berlin Expo
The E-commerce Berlin Expo is a one-day event that will be taking place on the 5th of May 2022. This Expo is the perfect opportunity to learn about the latest trends and developments in the e-commerce industry. Additionally, you will have the chance to network with other industry professionals and learn from their experiences. As an exhibitor, you will have the opportunity to showcase your latest products and services to a large audience.
In 2022, over 10 thousand visitors, 206 exhibitors, more than 50 speakers and over 50 media partners on 10k m2 in the event venue are expected.
Who attends E-commerce Berlin Expo?
The E-commerce Berlin Expo is attended by business owners, managers, and professionals from a wide range of industries. They all sell or are going to start selling services and products online – from e-commerce pure players through retailers and marketplace passionate to wholesale experts and manufacturers.
If you are looking to expand your knowledge about e-Commerce and meet new people in the industry, then this Expo is the perfect event for you.
Speakers of EBE 2022
EBE organizers managed to gather a lot of the top minds in the e-Commerce industry. They know that innovations are key to any industry, so they invited speakers who are experts in this field. During our event, attendees will have a chance to hear from the best in the business. Leading industry experts present their talks and share their expertise on numerous stages during the EBE, giving attendees an opportunity to learn about current e-commerce trends, use cases, and predictions. In 2022, the EBE stage hosts representatives of some industry giants such as Hubspot, Amazon, BigCommerce, MediaMarktSaturn, Pipedrive, Vodafone, Otto and Delivery Hero.
Of course, that is not all - there are more than 50 top-notch speakers at the E-commerce Berlin Expo. You don't want to miss out – read more about speakers here.
To get a better understanding of what to expect at this year's E-commerce Berlin Expo, we have also listed exhibitors and media partners below.
Exhibitors of E-commerce Berlin Expo 2022
The E-commerce Berlin Expo 2022 is about to get in full swing, and the exhibitors will be showing off their latest and greatest products and services! There's a lot of excitement in the air as people will be wandering from booth to booth, checking out all the new offerings.
This year, the list of exhibitors is extremely impressive, including Shopware, Deutsche Post DHL, Freshworks, Tradebyte, Computop, JD.com, Huboo, Wish, Soundcloud, Plentymarkets, Kaufland, Asendia, Spring GDS, Austrian Post, just to name a few.
The Networking Zone is sponsored by Checkout.com, while the VIP Zone is sponsored by Storyblok, BigCommerce, Lowell, Global-E, Namogoo, Octopia are stage sponsors, and E-commerce Germany Awards – a special gala proceeding Expo – is sponsored by TreviPay and Emplifi.
This year's line-up is incredibly diverse, representing the entire market spectrum.
Don’t just read the articles and recaps – come to Berlin and join the event for free. Take part in the event, visit booths, and talk to business partners who will assist you in facilitating sales!
Media Partners of E-commerce Berlin Expo 2022
In addition to our amazing exhibitors, the E-commerce Berlin Expo is also thrilled to have some media partners on board. These organisations will be providing coverage of the event, so make sure to keep an eye out for their articles and announcements. Some of the media partners include: IAB Europe, E-commerce Europe, HDE, Händlerbund, Bundesverband E-Commerce und Versandhandel Deutschland, Bundesverband Onlinehandel, BDOA, InternetRetailing and SIBB. This alone ensures a strong representation of sector professionals at the Expo!
Get your tickets today!
The final countdown has begun for the E-commerce Berlin Expo, which is coming up in just a few weeks. This event is always a highlight of the year for the e-commerce industry, and this year is no exception. You don't want to miss out on the amazing line-up of speakers, who will be discussing everything from digital marketing to payments processing. Plus, there will be plenty of opportunities to network with fellow e-commerce professionals.
Tickets are still available, so make sure to get yours today! See you in May!
The EBE2022 is free to attend. Visitors can register for a ticket here.
Learn more at https://ecommerceberlin.com
For further questions, reach out on pr@ecommerceberlin.com
The E-commerce Berlin Expo is just a few weeks away, and we're getting excited! This year's expo is going to be bigger and better than ever, with tons of great speakers and exhibitors. If you're planning on attending, make sure to check out the agenda for the day. The jam-packed schedule of events will teach you everything you need to know about E-commerce!
The E-commerce Berlin Expo is the leading trade fair for the digital economy. It is the meeting place for decision-makers and innovators from the DACH market. They come to learn about the latest trends and technologies in online retail, network with other industry leaders, and find new partners.
This event is the perfect platform for showcasing your products and services to a highly qualified audience and getting potential new opportunities.
The next E-commerce Berlin Expo will take place on May 5th at STATION-Berlin. This year's expo will be bigger and better than ever, with a range of great speakers and exhibitors. If you're interested in learning more about e-commerce, this is the event to attend.
The one thing you will notice about this agenda is that it is full; there are a lot of different sessions and exhibitors to visit, so make sure you come prepared! The focus will be on the latest trends, actionable case studies, and developments concerning technology and innovations.
Here's an overview of what you can expect from E-commerce Berlin Expo this year:
Would you like to delve deeper into any of these topics? Register now to watch this speech live - Get your ticket at https://ecommerceberlin.com/visit
You won't want to miss it!
An amazing lineup of speakers awaits! Among the brands that will be presenting are: Checkout.com, Hubspot, Amazon, Wish, IKEA, Pipedrive, Moebel24, Henkel, Douglas, MediaMarktSaturn, NBB, KaDeWe, TUI, Vodafone, Zalando, or Shopware.
Here are just a few of the notable presentations and names you can expect to see:
Check the full agenda right here
More to be announced soon! Stay tuned for updates on the website – and register today so you have it penciled in your calendar.
This is just a small taste of what they have in store for you this year. There are plenty of other great sessions and exhibitors, so make sure to check out the website for more information. You don't want to miss out on this opportunity to learn from the best in the business.
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The EBE2022 is free to attend. Visitors can register for a ticket here.
Find out more about the E-commerce Berlin Expo 2022.
The E-Commerce Berlin Expo will be taking place for the sixth time on the 5th of May, 2022, at Station Berlin. Doors will open at 10 AM, and EBE2022 is expected to welcome more than 10,000 visitors. The annual fair has become a leading e-commerce event in Berlin with representatives from Google, Facebook, YouTube, Zalando, Otto Groupm, Amazon and Alibaba Group as past participants. Learn more at https://ecommerceberlin.com
For further questions, reach out to pr@ecommerceberlin.com
1st April, Brussels, Belgium - As part of its regular communication to the market on the Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD)’s decision on IAB Europe and the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF), IAB Europe has confirmed that the action plan, required by the decision has been submitted today. The submission of the action plan marks a key milestone in the two-phase remediation period foreseen in the decision and should enable a version of the TCF with a broader compliance functionality to be rolled out over a 6-month period under the supervision of the APD.
The action plan outlines how IAB Europe, in its capacity as Managing Organisation of the TCF, will deliver on the formal orders laid down in the decision and reflects in-depth discussions amongst IAB Europe member companies that implement the TCF and convene in the existing TCF working groups and other instances, as well as IAB Tech Lab. These instances are multi-stakeholder, bringing together publishers, ad tech intermediaries, agencies, and CMPs (Consent Management Platforms). The actions in the plan were approved by the TCF Steering Group on 23 March (information about TCF governance is publicly available and may be consulted here). Each of the steps described in the action plan is the result of a careful assessment of which measures appear best suited to meeting the APD’s interpretation of the GDPR and the obligations the decision creates for IAB Europe.
The submission of the action plan is without prejudice to IAB Europe’s appeal of the decision to the Belgian Market Court. The appeal, as previously announced, contests a number of findings in the decision, in particular the findings that IAB Europe acts as a data controller of the TC String (the digital signals created to capture data subjects’ choices on how their personal data can be processed) and as a joint controller for the dissemination of TC Strings and other data processing done by TCF participants under the OpenRTB protocol.
Notwithstanding the appeal to the Market Court, IAB Europe welcomes the opportunity of the forthcoming dialogue with the APD and concerned supervisory authorities on the action plan to solicit their guidance on how best to deliver extended functionality to the TCF. IAB Europe has long aspired to submit the TCF for approval as a transnational GDPR Code of Conduct, and the action plan being submitted today is an important step in this direction.
Once the action plan has been reviewed and validated by the APD and concerned supervisory authorities, IAB Europe will have six months to implement it.
For more information on the APD decision on IAB Europe and the TCF, please find our latest FAQ document here.
Written by Kristanne Roberts, Product Management Director for Kantar Marketplace
I am extremely excited to announce that I am to be Chair of the 2022 IAB Europe Research Awards Jury, judging alongside high achieving industry experts from TikTok, PubMatic, Yahoo, Bloomberg Media and so many other leading companies.
The Research Awards competition is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the incredible European digital research projects underway and the contribution they have made to the development of the digital advertising industry.
In 2021 we awarded impressive projects such as MeMo²: Next Gen Crossmedia Analytics: Unraveling the True Value of Digital (Instore) Retail Advertising on Brand and Sales and Kantar’s Covid-19 Barometer. Not to mention, last year's Researcher of the Year Award went to Anita Caras, Insights Director, EMEA at Verizon Media.
You can find out more about the 2021 winning entries in this blog post.
The winners of the 2022 competition will be chosen to inspire and motivate the industry, highlight new ideas and future trends, and congratulate various teams on their hard work.
If you have a research project suitable for one of the many categories available to enter, such as Data Effectiveness or Consumer Attitudes and Behaviour, I encourage you to put your work forward. This is a great way to reward and motivate your hard-working teams! If you still need some convincing, here are even more reasons to enter:
I look forward to reviewing all of the great work and meeting the winners in Madrid in May at IAB Europe’s flagship event, Interact.
Written by Antonia Faulkner, Head of Marketing & Analytics at Samsung Ads Europe and APAC
I am delighted to be the Chair of the 2022 MIXX Awards Europe jury, and even more delighted to be judging alongside industry experts from Coca-Cola, Meta, Mindshare, Vodafone and many more leading companies.
The MIXX Awards competition is a fantastic opportunity for brands to gain recognition for their hard work and for the Digital Advertising industry as a whole to showcase all of the incredible creativity and innovation it has to offer.
In 2021 we awarded innovative campaigns such as The Fortnite Undercover Avatar by Havas Sports & Entertainment, Dogvertising by Mediacom and Beautiful When Clean by Mindshare. You can find out more about the 2021 winning entries in this blog post.
The winners of the 2022 competition will be chosen to showcase what a successful digital marketing campaign looks like and to inspire the industry by highlighting new ideas and future trends.
I encourage all advertising practitioners to enter this widely recognised competition with their latest advertising campaigns to reward and motivate their teams! If you still need some convincing, here are some more reasons to enter:
I look forward to reviewing all of the great work and meeting the winners in Madrid in May at IAB Europe’s flagship event, Interact.
We have had a brilliant start to the year with several insightful, thought-provoking events taking place, but the best is yet to come! Kicking off this month, we will continue key conversations through a series of unmissable virtual events and webinars that will focus on the latest policy updates, insights into online video advertising and CTV, and everything you need to know about programmatic advertising today.
All of our events are live and free to attend, so keep reading to find out what’s coming up, and be sure to secure your space today.
IAB Europe Industry Insider with PubMatic – State of Online Video Advertising in Europe
Join our first Industry Insider webinar of the year on Tuesday 15th March at 12:00 CET as we partner with PubMatic to share insights from their new research report, The State of Online Video Advertising in Europe, and shed some light on the formats and factors affecting buying decisions in the online video programmatic space today. You will also hear from a panel of industry experts as they share how agencies and publishers navigate the video ecosystem, as well as key predictions for the year ahead. Secure your free space below.
Our Virtual CTV Day is Back! Get All the Latest Updates on this Exciting Channel
Your favourite Connected TV (CTV) event is back on 27th April at 12:00 CET! Dive into a series of panel discussions and market deep dives to explore the emerging and exciting digital advertising channel that is CTV. Covering a range of topics from the CTV advertising landscape today through to measurement and targeting and the latest industry standards, this event is not to be missed.
Keep your eyes peeled for our impressive list of speakers, coming soon.
Virtual Programmatic Day- Save the Date!
We also want to remind you that our Virtual Prgrommatic Day will be back on 12th May at 12:00 CET. We will be covering everything you need to know about the programmatic advertising world today, from identity and privacy to diversity and inclusion; no stone will be left unturned.
The final agenda and speakers will be confirmed very soon.
We look forward to seeing you at one or more of our events in the coming weeks!
The Early Bird Deadline for the prestigious annual MIXX Awards Europe and IAB Europe Research Awards is fast approaching! Enter before Friday 11th March, to take advantage of the discounted entry fee!
Be a part of the competitions that receive hundreds of entries every year showcasing the very best campaigns and research efforts from across Europe!
The MIXX Awards Europe recognise and celebrate the best digital advertising campaigns in Europe, while the IAB Europe Research Awards recognise and showcase great European digital research projects and the contribution they have made to the development of the digital advertising industry.
There are more than 20 categories to choose from across the two awards, from Campaign Effectiveness to Connected TV in the MIXX Awards and Cross-Media Measurement to Consumer Behaviour in the Research Awards.
Find out more and view the full list of categories, judging criteria, and entry fees here.
The winners of IAB Europe’s MIXX Awards Europe and Research Awards 2022 will be celebrated at IAB Europe’s flagship event, Interact on 25th-26th May, the must-attend event for the digital advertising and marketing industry.
Entry Checklist
We have created a handy checklist to help you make sure your entry is on track.
✔ Download the entry notes
Our entry notes contain all the rules and entry info you need for entering the awards, including the judging criteria. The MIXX Awards Europe entry notes can be found here and the IAB Europe Research Awards entry notes here.
✔ Plan your time
Make sure you have enough time to draft your submissions and get them reviewed before you submit them. Please note the final deadline is Friday 15th April. Please get in touch if you think you might have any delays.
✔ Consider all of the categories
Consider entering your work into multiple categories to get maximum visibility for your project or campaign. There is a discounted rate for entering additional categories!
✔ Review the 2021 winning entries
Why not have a look at some of our winners from last year to inspire your entry?
✔ Ask the organisers
Get in touch with us via email if you have any questions - awards@iabeurope.eu
Enter the Research Awards here
In this week's guest blog post, we have Filippo Gramigna, CEO at Audiencerate diving into the world of data clean rooms. What are they? What are the benefits and drawbacks? Ultimately, are they worth it? Keep reading to find out!
The marketing world has been busy, if not slightly chaotic, following the abjuration of the cookie. Google’s FLoC came and went, only to be replaced by Topics, while Meta teamed up with Mozilla to develop Interoperable Private Attribution (IPA). The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, and others opted for identifiers, and still more solutions are being configured, rejected, and refined at any given time.
In the race for privacy-compliant technologies that offer omnichannel measurement and campaign oversight, one piece of tech is steadily growing in popularity: data clean rooms.
The Basics
Simply put, a data clean room is a piece of intermediary software that enables two parties to pool their data safely and securely. The process allows companies to connect insights from other parties, creating a more comprehensive dataset.
Anonymisation is configured into the design: any personally identifiable information, such as email addresses, is encrypted, and access is only granted to those involved in a partnership. This brings us to the next point: there are different kinds of data clean rooms, which plays a significant role when it comes to the kind of data and insights available.
Walled gardens run media clean rooms. Think Google Ads Data Hub, Amazon Marketing Cloud, and Meta Business Suite. In this scenario, each platform has a full view of its own data but only provides hashed and aggregated insights to partnered companies. Marketers then match this information with their own first-party data, using the inconsistencies to flag inefficient ad spend or targeting, for example. While undoubtedly valuable, these insights do come at a price; brands can only evaluate campaign performance within the rules and parameters set out by each platform, with no possibility for competitive oversight and comparisons.
Another option is a partner data clean room, where two parties – a publisher and an advertiser, for example – can share their data, each gleaning insights from a more complete understanding of customer journeys. Both parties have full control over the amount and type of data shared and benefit from a secure, closed environment.
The Benefits
Data clean rooms are a secure, privacy-friendly way to help brands get a clearer and more detailed picture of their media performance, with insights that can help determine reach, frequency, and attribution metrics. This means brands can evaluate their ad spend, optimise strategies, and maintain value-driven campaigns.
As data clean rooms rely on partnerships, this technology may also help pave the way for a more inclusive, cooperative, and equal marketing environment. For example, brands that have less access to consumer or transactional data, such as some consumer goods brands, can collaborate with retailers to gauge campaign performance, while simultaneously ensuring retailers can offer popular products to their customers.
Meanwhile, alliances between publishers and advertisers can strengthen their overall position in the market, bolstering data independence from tech giants and moving away from outsourcing revenue and audience monetisation. While this may impact scalability to a certain extent, rich and high-quality audiences will still be available, with quality outweighing quantity. Many clean rooms, therefore, help brands segment and target audiences, even without cookies.
Loyal customers and high-quality audience data will further encourage advertisers to reach out for partnerships, increasing the potential of valuable alliances in the future. This idea of increased cooperation and interoperability extends to the tech, with data clean rooms complementing other existing technologies such as customer data platforms (CDPs), improving data sharing and optimising data strategies and asset activation.
The Drawbacks
As with any emerging technology, there remain some kinks to iron out. Some of these are purely technical, such as the issue of formatting: without universal standardisation, parties can find themselves with two incompatible data sets that might cause some hiccups when it comes to matching them.
Others are more social: the culture of cooperation is not quite here yet, with many still wary of sharing data due to privacy concerns, data breaches, and anything that might risk their reputation. As data clean rooms rely on first-party data, data-rich companies – direct-to-consumer brands and other major players – will have a considerable marketing advantage until the environment truly adapts to the technology.
Finally, a fully integrated, omnichannel understanding of a brand’s performance is not yet possible. With no option to pull data from different platforms, brands can only achieve a siloed view of their activities, which becomes both confusing and pricey as investing in multiple data clean rooms can rack up a fair cost. Some companies have already begun to tackle this particular issue, yet it remains to be seen to what extent walled gardens are willing to cede data in a privacy-first landscape.
Conclusion
Are data clean rooms worth it? The immediate answer is yes: they provide more insights, allowing brands to evaluate and adjust campaigns, targeting, and ad spend in a way that is safe and privacy compliant, while simultaneously complementing pre-existing tech. As we move closer to a first-party data future, combining the use of data clean rooms with CDPs can create a package of tools that will allow data orchestration and trading, also in a privacy-safe manner. Since some fine-tuning remains when it comes to standardisation and omnichannel attribution, companies should still see how and where they can maximise their first-party data, establish valuable partnerships, and experiment, explore, and collaborate.
16th February 2022, IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem has introduced a ‘start-up’ membership tier to help foster and showcase innovation across Europe.
The new level of membership is reserved for companies who are verified as a start-up by the National IAB in the market they operate, providing an opportunity for such businesses that are already established in their local market, to expand across Europe.
IAB Europe is keen to provide a platform and voice for innovative businesses in their infancy that are helping to enhance the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem. New and existing members will be able to network to share and spark ideas, solutions and best practices.
Commenting on joining as the first IAB Europe start-up member, Uroš Jojić, President of Brid.tv said: "As a company working on providing publishers with video advertising and monetisation solutions, we believe that joining IAB Europe is the perfect stepping stone toward further developing our technology and improving transparency with our publishers. We are thrilled at the opportunity to be the first to leverage their new startup membership tier, as it is perfect for startups in the digital advertising industry looking for resources and opportunities to scale their businesses."
Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe, commented on the value of this new membership tier: “IAB Europe's strength comes from its extensive membership of National IABs and corporate organisations. We are always looking for ways to welcome and include new businesses that add value to our industry. Through this new membership tier, we can expand this reach and provide a platform for showcasing European innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Companies that join at this membership level will be able to take advantage of the key benefits of IAB Europe, including access to its wide-ranging industry and policy committees and task forces, the opportunity to speak at owned and partnership events, and assistance with amplifying marketing efforts across IAB Europe’s extensive European network.
For more information on the membership packages and how to join, please visit this page or contact the IAB Europe team at communication@iabeurope.eu
Entries for the prestigious annual MIXX Awards Europe and IAB Europe Research Awards are now open! Enter before the early bird deadline on Friday 11th March, to take advantage of the discounted entry fee!
Take part in the competitions that receive hundreds of entries every year showcasing the very best campaigns and research efforts from across Europe!
The MIXX Awards Europe recognise and celebrate the best digital advertising campaigns in Europe, while the IAB Europe Research Awards recognise and showcase great European digital research projects and the contribution they have made to the development of the digital advertising industry.
Why enter?
There are more than 20 categories to choose from across the two awards, from Campaign Effectiveness to Connected TV in the MIXX Awards and Cross-Media Measurement to Consumer Behaviour in the Research Awards.
Find out more and view the full list of categories, judging criteria, and entry fees here.
The winners of IAB Europe’s MIXX Awards Europe and Research Awards 2022 will be celebrated at IAB Europe’s flagship event, Interact on 25th-26th May, the must-attend event for the digital advertising and marketing industry.
For more information or to enter the MIXX awards, click here.
For more information or to enter the Research awards, click here.
We're kicking off the month of February with a brilliant blog post from one of our members, Audiencerate. CEO, Filippo Graminga, dives into the topic of consumer needs in a post-pandemic, digitally charged world, so if you want to know more about the expected online experience, keep reading!
As a result of two years of intermittent lockdowns and limited social interactivity, people have come to demand more and more from their digital experiences as a way to compensate. The spheres of online and offline continue their trajectory towards complete synthesis, and as they do, consumers expect the digital to be life-like, and to meet them in the here and now.
What does this mean for businesses? For one, 2022 can be considered “The Year of B2H” – business to human – where experience trumps all else. This means that to retain consumers and build long-lasting loyalties, companies have a lot of boxes to tick: interactions need to be immersive, personal, and real-time – all the time.
Up to 80% of consumers consider current experiences to be lacking, and businesses that did not meet expectations during lockdown could have lost as much as £2.5 billion per year. So as businesses set out in the new year, it is crucial for them – whatever their expertise – to remember that they are marketing to people searching for meaning, engagement, and personal value.
Closing the Experience Gap
Traditionally, there has been a discrepancy between what consumers want and what businesses and organisations offer. Customers want their brands to see them as they are, for who they are, and what they need. Importantly, the picture of the public is changing: purchasing power and influence are escaping narrowly definable cohorts, extending to digitally savvy TikTokers, senior citizens with more disposable income, financially empowered female consumers, and globally attainable markets. Companies need to learn how to tap into shifting paradigms and power dynamics while avoiding tuning out existing long-term customers. The ability to communicate personal messages across borders, generations, and circumstances is no easy task – and it takes more than simple data collection.
The truth is, simply amassing information is no longer enough. One of the ways businesses can begin to tackle this is by introducing unity from the ground up: making more connections, creating fewer barriers. In practice, this means everything from your tech stack to your business operations needs to reach new levels of effective cooperation. Intelligence must be able to flow from product development and design to marketing, with gathered insights then feeding back up the supply chain, constantly optimising and integrating new information. Tools that aid businesses in aggregating and centralising their data – thus preventing the formation of disconnected data silos – will be vital to help companies provide users across the globe with the experiences they are looking for.
It’s Now or Never
While the word ‘instant’ in a digital context once referred primarily to messaging, ‘instant’ now permeates, if not defines, the entire online experience. The pandemic accelerated this process, exemplified by companies such as Gorillas and Weezy popping up to provide ultra-speedy grocery deliveries alongside go-to established supermarkets, while transactions within the realms of banking and real estate occurred as close to real-time as they can get. It has been seven years since Google started to talk about ‘micro moments’ – that itchy impulse we all have to reach for our phones, tablets, or laptops to answer a sudden but pressing question or need that has infiltrated our brain – and still, businesses are failing to truly capitalise on these.
Customers are looking for answers within the first seconds of their search, and the first five minutes of a query. Since technological development and processing speeds are becoming more reliable, the onus is migrating from the device to the company to fulfill expectations, and any lags are considered a failure on the behalf of the business for not updating their deals, their inventory, or their content properly. In some cases, going further and messaging proactively can hit the spot – as long as it stays personal, relevant, and most importantly, valuable to the consumer: specific new products, information on purchased products, and time-sensitive updates. For businesses to meet these expectations, they need to make sure that not only their technology is continuously providing and integrating real-time updates, but that they are acting on this information effectively.
Every Path is a Path to the Consumer
While communications from businesses to the public used to be unilateral, following a “one-to-many” approach – from newspaper announcements to TV and radio advertising – communication paths have opened up, giving consumers unprecedented access to the companies that serve them. The surge of e-commerce, bolstered by the pandemic, further emphasised this reliance on digital channels. Crucially, there is no one channel to dominate them all: customers flick between platforms and applications, with nearly half (46%) opting for email, more than a third (35%) for live chat online, and nearly a fifth (17%) taking the social media route.
Up to 80% of interactions between customers and businesses are now digital, with companies such as WhatsApp, Pinterest, and Instagram expanding features to meet demand with personalised responses, and refusing any one of these would lose out on a considerable user base. Yet while 70% of UK SMEs acknowledge that communication is key, 40% do not invest in personalised strategies or more than one channel. This has to change: digital can no longer be an afterthought, it needs to be integrated from step one, with the right tools and technology to facilitate omnichannel experiences while enabling tracking and performance measurement. A growing number of marketers have turned to specific data management systems – Customer Data Platforms (CPDs) – to accurately gather and collate data from multiple touchpoints, building and updating consumer profiles in real-time, to meet all of the criteria.
Digital and social experiences are inextricably intertwined. Companies must make sound technological investments moving into 2022, to meet consumer demands. Only through providing the best services can they expect to stand out in a saturated market, a challenge that is becoming ever more complex. The key elements of hyper-personalisation, hyper-speed, and hyper-connectivity help create a positive customer experience, which will unlock company growth. There is no turning back the clock: digital immersion is necessary for survival.
