Evolution in the Marketing Technology ‘Lumascape’ — What It Means to You
The marketing technology landscape faces a few major developments that surfaced in 2020 and will impact everyone in the field: the extreme pressure Facebook and Google are now under and what is possibly coming for them; the changes in media consumption and how that will impact the technology arc in the next five to 10 years; and the evolution of blockchain. Facebook and Google are juggernauts, and this duopoly is what the majority of digital agencies “work in,” but there are two major problems with this. First, even as big as they are, the two giants are only blips on the entire “lumascape.”
If your campaign only lives in these two networks, you are leaving out hundreds of technologies and delivery methods and the vast majority of inventory open on the internet. The second issue you face by living solely in these walled gardens is that you not only pay a super-premium for the inventory, but you are also most likely going to be locked into their third-party data at extreme markups.
The gathering and execution of said data are what Congress and many others are questioning from an ethics standpoint. It may not be immediate, but eventually, there will be regulation and possibly a breakup of the duopoly. What does this mean for you? Well, if you are positioned properly it is a win, but if you are “living” exclusively in this duopoly, you may want to prepare now.
How do you get ahead of this? Focus on expanding your talent and resources in-house or select a partner that knows data and how to execute it. First of all, make sure you’ve got people who can run the entire chart above. It’s more than a full-time job, it’s a sizeable department or a specialized company. Second, work with resources that will immediately start farming, aggregating, and interpreting your internal data so you can not only save on execution costs through these platforms (and their many competitors) but will see increased KPI results as well, as your campaign matures.
A great example of this occurred with ARDA’s Responsible Exit campaign. In the last 12 months, media costs per impression declined by 267% while the site engagement went up significantly. How did this happen? Digital Ignite and ARDA worked together to determine not only the “who” and “what” (timeshare owners who were looking to safely exit) but also by using metadata for the “why” (various levels of distress and pressure).
This approach allowed us to create our own second-party data segment to bid against. This data segment is not available in the traditional data marketplace: It is way too granular, so you must build your own. This method works across categories and scenarios. It is not an easy lift, but it’s something a team of experts can leverage to bring significant value to your marketing team.
The second major development is that media consumption has been flipped on its head. Traditional print and broadcast are nearing their deathbeds, but there is more tech taking a leading role. The Virtual Reality Evolution promises to continue to disrupt the status quo. Augmented reality is another disruptive tech that you need to be watching. Some in the industry believe that smartphones will be replaced with smart glasses in the next five years. If this happens, the shake-up will be as big, if not bigger, than the iPhone in 2007. Not only would creative need to evolve, but calls-to-action, site structure, and user responsiveness would undergo complex changes vis-à-vis what’s considered acceptable today.
The last tech evolution to keep in mind is blockchain. It is here and impacting business already. Smart contracts will continue to replace current sales procedures in the next few years, which will save on labor costs and streamline closing processes in the industry. On top of the obvious timeshare applications of blockchain, there are many new revenue opportunities. Digital Ignite Creative Director Kevin Ferreira recently used a new token issue to capitalize on a startup’s creative content, which raised $15 million for the client within an hour. This can be scaled and executed in the timeshare space — you just need a use case and to think outside the box.
The future is bright. We are headed into recovery after a long winter. But you need to embrace these changes to stay ahead of what is coming.
