From location beacons to artificial intelligence here is a comprehensive guide to what I predict will be the biggest marketing trends for the New Year.
Bringing Augmented Reality to Life in 2017
Pokémon Go brought augmented reality to the forefront for many marketers and we expect advertisers outside of the gaming realm to dive deep into this space in 2017.
AR and VR technologies remain largely uncharted territory with literally endless creative possibilities. With this technology, the viewer becomes an integral part of the brand experience as opposed to a mere observer. Instead of a call to action, they are the action.
The questions Australian brand need to consider are, ‘How could my brand provide a new experience with this software’? How can we bring our brands essence to life in a fun way for customers in 2017’? And perhaps most importantly, ‘How can we make our experience to anything else out there’?
Beacons Provide A Huge Opportunity for Retailers
Location-based, personalised data is one of retail's most underutilised technologies to date. Marketers looking to amplify the in store experience would be wise to look to Beacons as a stepping stone towards a personalised experience for consumers.
Imagine this: A beacon in a clothing store that can locate a shopper and detect exactly what sort of customer they are (for example, their gender, age, location, and whether they’ve purchased from the retailer before). Then, the retailer serves them a notification (email/SMS) with a time-limited, personalised offer.
Using beacons in sophisticated marketing strategies will be the next step in how customers experience your brand in a bricks-and-mortar setting. For marketers, it also adds a new dimension for in-store analytics, allowing them to better understand buying patterns, create in-store engagement, redeem offers, and increase conversions.
Facebook Broadening Scope
Facebook has introduced a unified conversion pixel that combines both the conversion tracking pixel and custom audience pixels that enables more solutions for advertisers. Note that the previous iteration, Facebook's conversion pixel, is going to be deprecated in Feb 2017, so marketers will be migrating to the new pixel to leverage the best options Facebook has to offer.
Facebook Audience Network (FAN) will develop new formats, metrics, and channels such as purchases and installs via FAN, so as FAN grows, more metrics and objectives are likely.
Facebook is also likely to invest in publisher partners, focusing on header bidding for greater control. These moves are likely to pivot the focus of programmatic display.
Chatbots and Messaging Apps
The opportunities for brands to reach consumers through messenger bots is gaining momentum. Brands such as Sephora have used the software to provide makeup tips and American Express has embraced the tech to alert users to suitable promotional offers.
In Australia, brands have a huge opportunity to embrace the technology to serve in app suggestions where their customers are spending increasing amounts of time. Messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Kik, WhatsApp, and WeChat allow brands directly with consumers and inspire them to make purchases via chatbots.
By Marin director of marketing, XuanThu Pham