Marketing in the era of 'always on' communication

Matt Preschern, EVP and chief marketing officer of HCL Technologies.

Before I list the most important trends I see emerging in the marketing environment, I’ll share some background context. There are three dimensions that are of critical importance.

Firstly, we live in an age of disruption, which is unparalleled to anything that we have seen before and which has changed the marketing landscape.

There are over 20 billion mobile devices in use on the planet, and data is quadrupling annually.

The second dimension is that the human trust barometer is at its lowest point ever. Research by Wunderman has shown that people have a very low-level of trust in enterprise, government and non-profit organisations.

The third dimension is that of security, particularly cyber security. If, for example, a large retailer loses the data on 20 million accounts, this has a huge impact on every aspect of the business, particularly on the reputation and the relationship that the business has with its customers.

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So, with this as the background context, these are the five key trends that I see impacting on global marketing and media in 2018, not in any particular order.

1. Business-to-business needs to build authentic brands

The value proposition of the business in the market has to match the customer’s experience.

2. The explosion of data globally
Today it is much easier to access information. Messaging needs to be more personalised and there’s an increasing importance of the ability to interact on a one-to-one basis. What is super important is the use of technology in the form of automation and the ability to analyse and interpret data to the point of accurately refining and targeting messaging.

3. The campaign is dead
In a world where people have access to everything, marketing and communications cannot be in campaign form anymore, it has to move to an “always on” modus operandi. Social media dictates that you constantly reinforce who you are, what you do, why you’re different, and this ties back to my earlier point about authentic brands.

4. Video is vital

The single most important aspect is how you communicate and when you do so. Video is by far still the fastest growing and most impactful form of communication. As a marketer, you cannot afford to ignore the power of video. Short videos work exceptionally well.

5. The martech (marketing technology) stack

This comprises automation; data analytics and content management vehicles, and is vital.

Critical to this is the human capital with the skills and talent to manage all the interactions with customers and to fulfil the brand’s promises.