Welcome to the latest issue of R3LATIONSHIPS – our update of trends and insights into the marketing industry
Mining For Marketing Gold at CES 2019
How quickly things change. At CES last year, digital assistants were “still in development” and technophiles were busy debating the “notch” in the design of Apple’s iPhone X. Now Alexa, Siri and Cortana are household names and fewer people are buying iPhones, so much so that it made Wall Street look twice. An extra camera on a phone or a self-driving truck is not going to change things for marketers, but here are 3 things to look out for at CES this week that may impact your marketing world in the near future.
1. Examples of hyper-personalization to predict how data will be used.
2. Retail moments appearing in new places for when and where we’ll be shopping from next.
3. Dynamic digital content infiltrating the customer engagement journey.
Learn more about dynamic content: The Dynamic Content Mind Shift
eSports Powers Up the Leisure Economy
Last year, US gamers spent more money on gaming than the GDP of Bahrain. Prize pools have grown by 2,400% since 2016, and by 2021, ad revenue will have leapt by 140%. The money that is being invested into gaming by consumers, brands and media has ushered in the Leisure Economy, described so as people are now able to create revenue from what was once considered a past time.
It’s still unregulated territory and legal challenges are expected to continue as the market matures, but the number of engaged players and viewers from live events and streaming are so staggering that brands can no longer turn a blind eye to gaming’s potential. Brands that want to get involved will need to understand the non-traditional compensation structures, gamer demographics, and revenue streams that are built around subscriptions, sponsorships and donations.
For more on marketing in eSports: How eSports Will Eat Sports
Martech Drives a 144% Increase in Global M&A
In our annual wrap-up of M&A activity in 2018, 465 deals valued at $33bn marked a 144% increase in spend on the previous year, with significant amounts being spent by more diverse buyers and others as they look to create bigger tech and data stacks to build stickier client relationships. Only 20 percent of M&A transactions completed last year involved holding companies.
“M&A activity in 2018 signalled that the grand view of MarTech is becoming actualized and 2019 will be about how companies move beyond facilitating the intersection of marketing, technology and management, to real integration into the enterprise,” said Greg Paull, Principal at R3.
CMOs to Invest in Reigniting Customer Energy
There’s a bit of talk about going “back to basics” after a year where technology has overloaded the market with data and deflated consumer trust in institutions. This year, CMOs will be putting more focus on selling to existing customers and developing their Customer Experience Management capability as they try to regenerate the kind of emotional enthusiasm more associated with traditional brand building. They will do this through better (and more ethical) use of customer data connected with creative experiential marketing.
“One common denominator among today’s most innovative companies is a unified view of the customer, pulling data from across multiple sources. The data piece is table stakes nowadays. It’s going to take a mix of creativity and intelligence to stand out,” said Stacy Martinet, VP of marketing strategy and communications at Adobe.