2019: Top Predictions For Digital Marketing Trends

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“With new technologies, such as: voice, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, natural language processing and facial recognition becoming mainstream, it can feel as if marketers are always chasing their tails” [1]. So what do you think this year holds for digital marketers? - To try to help you deliberate your answer, in this article we put the spotlight on what experts from the industry think will happen in three different areas.

Number 1: Data Privacy Will Become More Concrete

“Even if data is used for consumer benefit, a privacy breach will see consumers move elsewhere”

Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg & Co., there is little doubt that people have become very savvy when it comes to platforms misappropriating their personal data. The 2018 crackdown brought with it the EU's GDPR, and since then, other acts concerning data privacy are being overhauled and enforced all across the globe, and this trend is likely to continue. To that end, companies have to be mindful of the fact that disaster is just one data breach away, and in today's heavily consumer-driven environment, no company - regardless of how big they are, can afford such a calamity. - Remember how FB's shares plummeted like a giant asteroid falling to earth?

Mark Henning, the executive director of Kantar media, predicts that: "Marketers will need to get intimate with trusted data by using their own or key trusted partners and focus on measuring its effectiveness to ensure it delivers on the targeting promise and impact" [1]. Further, leading digital strategist, and founder and CEO of the rapidly growing OTT platform, OONA Global Mobile TV, noted that: “Today, consumers are aware of the severity of the potential misuse of their data, and this is unlikely to change. That is why, right from the get-go, OONA's strategy has always been to run a fully transparent platform; to respect and protect users' data; and to process anonymous stats.”

Number 2: The New Currency is Consumer Capital

“ Industry pundits expect to see the consumer working for brands as well” [1]

Clearly, consumers should be central to business decisions, and to that end, brands work for their customers. For Katherine Calvert, the chief marketing officer of Spredfast and Lithium, this: “will be the year brands leverage their social capital with consumers to help drive sales, answer questions, and act on the brand’s behalf in times of crisis” [1]. This is without doubt a winning strategy, as social media becomes ever more powerful and a major part of our lives, not to mention the research studies which show that consumers are heavily influenced by social recommendations.

“Communities are the driving force that builds brands into cultural icons” [1]

Calvert also puts forward the perspective that brands can realise the measure of their social networks via digital social capital. – And makes the analogy that in the same way as higher levels of economic capital can generate greater opportunities, when it comes to a brand's audience, more social capital can deliver a more substantial outcome. If we consider consumers' comments and feelings of loyalty towards certain brands: it is evident that community members are more likely to act on the brand’s behalf when it has more social capital [1].

“By building and promoting places for superfans to create content, share stories, and shout brand love, companies will secure brand loyalty from the ground floor” [1]. OONA Mobile TV is an excellent case in point when it comes to achieving exceptional brand loyalty . - Its first foray has been into the Indonesian market, where it has enjoyed phenomenal success, and is set up to provide 185 million Indonesians with free ad-based live and video on-demand entertainment from leading international/national and locals channels. The OONA platform empowers users with a very strong interactive experience.

Users can freely interact with millions of other viewers, and friends and family, via OONA's fun vibrant chat rooms, as well as on Instagram and FB etc., to shout out about what they enjoy about the OONA entertainment experience. This could be:

1. Expressing their love for certain channels which feature the latest series, great films, live sports, action, motoring, combat, celebrity gossip, Fashion TV, cookery specials, comedy, cartoons, anime, documentaries, educational programs, news, and more.
2. The virtual currency rewards (tcoins) users receive just for watching the personalised entertainment they adore, in addition to select personalised ads supplied by the cool AI OONAbot that can save them time and money.
3. The fabulous branded products and services, generous discounts, free meals, fun days out, and free telephone minutes and telcom services that they can redeem their tcoins for.
4. Talking about ads for must-have branded goods and services that they have expressed interest in on their one to one conversations with OONAbot. - The products they can't wait to get because they have found a great deal through OONA.

Dean Capobianco, the MD of Asia Pacific emerging markets at LiveRamp, believes that: “the marketing ecosystem will go from data-driven marketing to more people-based marketing, and put customers at the centre of marketing” [1]. To that end, marketing and customer care will ultimately merge, and 'social customer service' such as that employed by OONA TV (which uses insights gleaned from its AI personal assistant's regular customer care interactions, in order to personalise the way in which it targets its marketing towards them), will be the way forward.

                                                                      Image credit: Maillie

Number 3: Programmatic Marketing Still Takes the Number One Spot

It is predicted that by 2020, the spend on global programmatic will exceed $43 billion, and the next growth phase will occur this year. OONA TV, has certainly achieved excellent results from embracing this form of marketing, which is part of its strategy for the inroads it is making into Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America, the US and Europe, where it will offer its free AVOD live and video on-demand model, along with premium options. But what will happen when programmatic matures?