Mar Tech Archives - Page 2 of 2

Written by Clare Wong on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Convergence of Marketing 5.0 and T-Shaped Marketing

Here we are, on the precipice of a post-covid world, yet another one is brewing…(It’s not the emergence of Omicron if you are reading this in early 2022).

Ever-present Marketing 5.0

You might have heard of Industry 4.0, but I recently came to know of Marketing 5.0 by Philip Kotler – which essentially is the backbone of Industry 4.0. Marketing 2.0 to 4.0 was “Mad Men meets The Social Network with a sprinkle of Suits”, but Marketing 5.0 is “Black Mirror meets Love, Death and Robots” (but there are the good bits, like iOS 14 with their privacy move). Since 2019, Covid got us embracing a kaleidoscope of Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation. Industry 4.0 effects of Automation, Next Tech and Accelerated Digitalisation, in tandem, Marketing 5.0’s Hyper-Personalisation, Responsible Innovation and Smart-Connectivity. This inevitably caused considerable transformations within societies and market disruptions. Naturally, marketers had to react to this change.

Industry 4.0’s impact on many facets of human lives and societies (Image Source: The Marketing Journal)

*Convergence of New Customer Experience and “Next Tech” (Image Source:* *The Marketing Journal*)

Customer Empathy first, Technology second

So, how do marketers fit into this ‘next tech’ vision?

As the book’s name suggests “Technology for humanity”, humans are central to successful applications and marketers are still at the core of Marketing 5.0.

It is not about replacing the human with computer intelligence but rather finding ways in which “machines and people might fit and deliver the most value across the customer journey.”

Mercè C. (Co-founder, Lead Consultant & Chartered Marketer)

In today’s connected and on-demand economy, relevance is the most important currency. This harkens back to the drivers of marketing evolutions, which are marketing technology and consumer needs. To stay relevant, marketers must adopt a customer-centric approach.

The 5 components of *Marketing 5.0 (*Image Source: Think Beyond)

Next Technologies’ main purpose is to amplify the capabilities of marketers to create and deliver value. With the rapidly-changing consumer behaviours due to the pandemic, marketers can create solutions that are more relevant than those created by the current-state AI.

Kolter touches on how Technology is adding value to marketing through the above five components with society and sustainability in mind.

Stepping into Marketing 5.0, T-shaped marketers would see the expansion and deepening of various domains (e.g. Behavioural Psychology, Digital Analytics, AR/VR, Service & UX Design).

Am I ready for Marketing 5.0?

The biggest challenge marketers face is the journey from strategy to execution!
Let alone being ready for Marketing 5.0.

In my career journey, I am neither on track with Jack Ma’s career advice nor ready to take on the entrepreneurship path. I believe there is no rush to setting deadlines to attain your career goals (something that Jack Ma begs to differ).

My current goal is to advance from being a T-Shaped to a V-Shaped Marketer by broadening my business acumen, technical know-how while strengthening interpersonal skills. Individuals are rarely capable of achieving a true, deep “V” shape in their skill sets, but a collective unit can. I am blessed to have the opportunity to learn alongside similarly-minded, differentiated knowledge-experts within Google.

If you are just starting your digital marketing journey or at the cusp of a career-pivot, don’t fret – here are some readings that will help you get up to speed with the MarTech Universe (not the Marvel Universe!) and pivot to becoming a T-shaped marketer.

Good Reads and Frameworks: Marketing 5.0’s Marketer

Concepts and Approach to Digital Marketing: The ABCs of Digital Marketing, The 5 Cs of Digital Marketing
Marketing Technology Space: MarTech Lumascape 2022
Skillsets of Digital Marketers: Are you a T-shaped Marketer?
One- page business planning: The Lean Startup, Lean Canvas
Problem Solving: Design Thinking
The new customer journey: The Messy Middle

Have an Awesome 2022, Everyone!

WALLED GARDENS AND AD-FRAUD

Written by Aditya Satheesh for Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Low data prices has increased Internet users in India (mobile first Internet market) while propelling the growth/reach of social media giants as well as video content watch time over the last 5 years; but digital media still isn’t the preferred vehicle of marketing for most clients and only accounts for 25-30% of the industry spends, although it is growing YOY.

The adoption of digital media has been hindered by the fragmented digital ecosystem, doubts over ad fraud and effectiveness of the medium, questions over viewability of ads, traditional mindset of brand managers and their lack of understanding of the digital ecosystem. Even until recently, I have been asked to run campaigns targeting the brands HQ or been provided with custom audience lists of senior executives in the company, to be targeted with the brand campaign so as to satisfy and address the question a lot of brand managers ask – I am not able to see my ad; as they compare it to traditional media where ads are shown in an appointment-viewing manner.

The ever-changing pandemic situation has definitely forced a digital pivot, with print and outdoor media taking a hit. Brand managers are forced to consider digital due to its targeting capabilities ensuring low spillage and cost efficiencies. And like learning the ABCs of the alphabets, all brands jump on the bandwagon of Facebook and Google with over 80% budget going to these 2 platforms. The platform scale/reach, along with cost efficiencies as well as brand credibility is definitely unbeatable in the space and hence becomes a no brainer for brands. But as the adoption of the duopoly increases, the strength and power of the walled gardens grow and so do their prices.

As marketers spend more on these platforms, they understand less about their customers as walled garden campaigns and interactions can’t be tied back to the brand’s CRM database. Brands receive a consolidated view of how their campaigns performed rather than an individualized view. There’s no way to verify impression/reach data or understand affinity target selections that work, you simply have to take it on faith. Yet marketers continue to spend more and get less.

A more equitable value exchange needs to be more about standardizing taxonomy and identifiers across all of these platforms to see and understand the customer journey. Today, even having unified unique reach in a digital campaign is next to impossible due to the fragmented ecosystem as well as walled gardens.

With the increased spends on digital, reports indicate that ad fraud rates gone up by 40% in these COVID times. Today ad verification in India is in its nascent stages and only around 10-15% invest on third party verification tools. The path for safer and more secure digital advertising effectiveness lies in third party ad verification, which ensures that brands are investing in quality media. Third party verification would ensure 4 things mainly

Brand Safety/Brand suitability – identify inflammatory/negative content and protect brand image/reputation
Ad Fraud – identifying Invalid Traffic to help evaluate efficacy of platform and calculate brands return on media investment
Viewability – helps measure effectiveness of ad delivery
In Geo – ensure ads served within intended demographics

Advertisers need to understand these underlying challenges as the adoption of digital increases at a rapid pace. Investing in third party verification tools will not only improve trust and transparency in the ecosystem, while also holding publishers accountable and thus help decreasing fraudulent traffic and increasing overall return on investment.