Customer experience will take centre stage in 2024, throwing marketers a daunting challenge — how to optimise communication so it can ride the message tsunami and deliver personalised content in real-time. FE Brandwagon spoke to agency heads to figure out trends and tools that will be pivotal for marketers and consumers alike. Here’s the lowdown:
Trends that will move the needle in online retail
2020 wasn’t just a year of challenges; it was a catalyst for transformation. The uncharted territory of the Covid-19 pandemic not only tested our resilience but propelled us to emerge stronger and smarter. Now as we navigate the waters of 2024, the winds of change are undoubtedly blowing in favour of online platforms. Research shows that the online retail market is set to skyrocket from $70 billion in 2022 to a staggering $300 billion+ by 2030 – an outstanding 360% increase. What’s driving this surge? The strategic integration of artificial intelligence by online retailers. This transformation isn’t happening in isolation; it is buoyed by the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), a force aiming to elevate e-commerce’s share in consumer purchases over the next two years.
Looking ahead to 2024, we anticipate several key trends:
Social commerce: In this era where market dynamics are shaped by consumer conversations, the fusion of social media and e-commerce presents unparalleled opportunities. Platforms such as YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram have become virtual marketplaces. Recognising the distinct preferences of age groups across these platforms is not just a nuance but a strategic imperative. Younger consumers gravitate towards Instagram and Facebook, while their more seasoned counterparts find their virtual marketplace in Facebook and WhatsApp.
Sustainability and social responsibility: In the boardrooms of responsible corporations, sustainability and social responsibility are not just buzzwords; they are mandates. As consumers increasingly align their choices with ethical considerations, our commitment to reducing carbon footprints, endorsing eco-friendly practices, and championing social causes is not just a value proposition but a business imperative.
Omni-channel and cross-border integration: The future of online retail hinges on our ability to integrate seamlessly across channels and borders. Customers demand not only a diverse product offering but also a uniform experience across platforms. This necessitates strategic investments in digital capabilities and forging partnerships that optimise our supply chains, enabling us to expand our market share while enhancing customer satisfaction.
AI is poised to transform the ad landscape… and how!
By Nisha Singhania, CEO, Infectious Advertising
Looking ahead, the biggest impact of AI is likely to be on healthcare with personalised medicine, finance through improved fraud detection, autonomous vehicles with enhanced transportation, and on advancements in natural language processing for better human-computer interactions. Additionally, AI is likely to impact education, cybersecurity and manufacturing, among other sectors, as technology continues to evolve. But closer home, AI is poised to transform advertising by enabling more personalised and targeted campaigns. Some examples of how it will help in our business:
1. Programmatic advertising: AI would automate buying of ad space. Algorithms would be able to analyse user data and behaviour to make real-time bidding decisions, ensuring that ads are shown to the relevant audience.
2. Personalised recommendations: AI algorithms would help analyse user preferences and behaviours to deliver personalised ad recommendations. Platforms like Netflix and Amazon already use AI to suggest content or products based on individual user data.
3. Chatbots and virtual assistants: The technology would enhance customer engagement by answering queries, providing information, and guiding users through interactive experiences.
4. Dynamic creative optimisation: AI would allow advertisers to create and serve personalised ad creatives based on user attributes and behaviour, ensuring that the content resonates with the specific interests of each viewer.
5. Predictive analytics: Advertisers could leverage predictive analytics to optimise their strategies, targeting audiences more likely to respond positively to their campaigns.
6. Voice search optimisation: With the rise of voice-activated devices, AI would be crucial for optimising advertising content for voice search.
7. Fraud detection and prevention: Machine learning algorithms would analyse patterns and anomalies in data to identify fraudulent activities, ensuring that advertisers get genuine engagement and clicks.
However, while AI has the potential to automate certain tasks and roles, it’s unlikely to completely replace human talent. Instead, AI is more likely to augment human capabilities, freeing individuals from routine tasks and allowing them to focus on higher-level cognitive functions, creativity, and complex problem-solving. It’s crucial for individuals to adapt and acquire skills that complement AI capabilities, fostering a workforce that can leverage the strengths of both AI and human intelligence for more effective and innovative outcomes.
P.S. This article was written using the AI tool ChatGPT, thanks to which it took the author less than 15 minutes to put together the entire piece.
Properties & brands that will emerge victorious
By Aditi Mishra, CEO, Lodestar UM
Election fever:With general elections scheduled from March to May and state assembly elections in eight states, brands have a unique opportunity to leverage increased viewership during this period. News channels, both national and regional, are expected to witness a 1.5x surge in viewership, creating a strategic platform for diverse brands across categories.
Cricket carnival:The highly anticipated IPL in May-June, followed by the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup in June-July 2024, offers advertisers a prime opportunity to capture the attention of sports enthusiasts across TV and digital platforms. The synergy of elections, IPL, and the World Cup will lead to a significant growth in ad-ex on both television and digital platforms, providing innovative tools for advertisers to engage with their audience.
Meanwhile, media landscape dynamics play an important role. The culmination of the Zee-Sony merger and the potential Disney Star and Viacom18 merger will reshape the media landscape in 2024. These strategic moves are set to create a duopoly in the Indian market, intensifying media activity and offering new avenues for advertisers to explore.
Top brands to watch out for
Revolutionising technology: Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy AI, set to be the most powerful AI phone, is poised to dominate the smartphone market with its generative AI launch in 2024. Embracing the next wave of innovation, Samsung aims to capture a significant share in the Gen AI-powered smartphone shipments, marking a major shift in the technology landscape.
UPI’s global impact: India’s UPI, after years of explosive growth, is set to make a global impact, strengthening payments connectivity worldwide. Within India, PhonePe, the largest player, is diversifying into fintech. As it expands aggressively into various sectors, PhonePe is positioning itself to become integral to consumers’ smartphone experiences.
Disruption in traditional sectors: In the CPG space, ITC has emerged as the largest FMCG company in the food sector, surpassing competitors like Reliance, Adani, Britannia, and Parle. With scores of new food products launched annually, ITC’s FMCG business is a key driver of its remarkable growth.
Tata Motors, a key player in the electric vehicle segment, is driving India’s EV growth with ambitious plans, despite the entry of Tesla in 2024. Ather Energy, focusing on the electric 2W segment, is gearing up for expansion, contributing to the transformation of the Indian auto industry.
Air India’s global aspirations: Transforming into a world-class global airline, Air India’s five-year plan aims to revolutionise the travel industry. As it continues its transformation journey, Air India is poised to be a game-changer for luxury enthusiasts and the travel industry at large.
Post-cookie advertising approaches that will stand the test of time in 2024
By Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison Media and OOH
10 years ago I put in cart a yellow down jacket on the Uniqlo site in China. A week later I was in Singapore and the same jacket chased me on a social media site. At that time I felt both overawed and creeped out at the power of technology.
Six months later I celebrated my wife’s 50th with a helicopter ride from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon. I was then chased for three months with ads for the same helicopter ride! For me it took a brief nine months to experience half life for a profound technology.
The first example was a case of cookies being used cross border for something highly relevant and useful to me as a consumer. The second was a stupid case of retargeting a consumer to repeat a once in a lifetime trip. Common to both was a nagging feeling of being stalked, a feeling that has reduced over the last 10 years because of its omnipresence. Therein, in this anecdote, lies the seed of the rise and fall of the power of the cookie — from the sublime to the ridiculous with insidious thrown in.
The power that lies in combining first party data (1PD) collected by a marketer when a consumer visits their website (IG or D2C page) with second party data from another partner, or with third party data from data sellers is awesome. You now get information on users’ preferences, browsing history, and interactions. This helps target and retarget better; decide how many times to show an ad, or in what sequence; or attribute which media touchpoint led to a particular outcome. This is sublime. That said, this power in the wrong hands on a campaign set up as an example above renders it ridiculous. But it is the invasion of privacy that is insidious. It’s become a blind spot that in the wrong hands can lead to stalking, fraud, brainwashing and reinforcing behaviour patterns. The latter is truly worrying. Data is used to reinforce past behaviour, reduce diversity and increase polarisation.
Which is why I will be glad when they deprecate the cookie. But what is also good is that they will not throw the baby with the bathwater. What will really go is the third party data – the data aggregators who would sell my and your data to companies. What will endure will be four practices:
1PD: Marketers will now gather and harvest valuable customer data picked up when they visit the marketer’s brand assets. Marketers will build Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and make that the foundational layer of their data stack.
Data partnerships between two marketers will thrive. There will be a difference. Both will place their data in Data Lakes where analytics will be possible without data or privacy changing hands. (Two tech giants recently announced a partnership that can have huge implications)
Contextual marketing will again become a force. To be able to place ads in media environments most relevant to the brand’s proposition was one of digital world’s earliest epiphanies. This will make a comeback just like retro music did.
AI-driven personalisation will increase. The place of DMPs that would churn different types of data will be taken by Predictive and Generative AI engines that will use algorithms to predict successful stimulus-response, and perfect it using machine learning.
Whether this takes us closer to marketing utopia or a dystopian Brave New World, only time will tell.
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